Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Hello, everyone.
If you're tuning in right now, you are what we
like to call the learner. Right. The learner.
You're someone who is, you know, endlessly curious,
someone who really wants to know how the world
actually works behind the scenes. Exactly. You
want that deep understanding without without
just drowning in a bunch of disjointed information.
Yeah. And today. Today, we are unpacking a really
intricate, surprisingly dramatic and historically
rich system. We are looking at the UK and Commonwealth
birthday honors. It's a massive topic. It really
is, because, I mean, when you hear the phrase
birthday honors, it sort of conjures up an image
of a simple party favor, right? Yeah, like a
monarch handing out a few medals alongside a
slice of cake. Right, exactly. Yeah. But we're
going to explore how this system is actually,
it's a massive engine of national recognition.
A huge bureaucratic machine. We're getting into
global schedule shifts, pandemic -induced delays,
and even a pretty fascinating bit of 19th century
political drama. It really is a subject that
just hides in plain sight. I mean, most people
see the headlines when... You know, a famous
actor or a prominent scientist gets knighted.
Oh, yeah. You see the photo ops. Right. But they
rarely consider the actual machinery operating
beneath that single headline. Yeah. So just to
set the stage for you, the birthday honors are
a formal system. OK. And they're used across
several Commonwealth realms to mark the reigning
monarch's official birthday. Official being the
key word there. Exactly. And the core function
of these honors is. granting appointments into
national or dynastic orders or awarding individuals
with specific decorations and medals. And who
actually hands these out? Well, they're presented
either by the monarch directly or by a vice regal
representative. Which is that's like a governor
general, right? Yeah. Essentially someone who
acts as the monarch's official proxy in a different
country. Got it. So this whole thing operates
alongside the New Year honor. Yes. Those are
the two major ones. Together, they form the two
major annual lists published in the Official
Gazette. And actually, just to clarify for anyone
who might be unfamiliar with the term, the Official
Gazette isn't just a regular newspaper you pick
up at the corner store. No, definitely not. Definitely
not. It is the government's official journal
of record. If an appointment or a new law isn't
published there legally and officially, it basically
hasn't happened. That distinction is so crucial.
Publication in the Gazette transforms what is
essentially a private royal nod into a matter
of permanent public and historical record. Right.
In this system, it stretches far beyond the borders
of just the United Kingdom. It extends across
multiple sovereign nations within the Commonwealth.
So it's a highly structured, highly visible.
public mechanism for rewarding citizens. Exactly.
I like to think of it less like a massive corporate
employee of the month badge and more like a nation's
living DNA sequence. Oh, that's a great way to
put it. Yeah, because every time the geopolitical
climate shifts or monarch ages or prime minister
resigns, a whole new sequence of medals is coded
into the public record. It leaves a permanent
trace. It really does. And one of the most fascinating
aspects of this system early on in the sources
is this fundamental concept of the official birthday.
Because the calendar dates for the celebration,
they constantly shift. They do. The concept of
the official birthday is honestly an ingenious,
if slightly surreal, bureaucratic tool. Right.
Surreal is the word. Because the date of the
actual human being's birth. the monarch's real
birthday, and the date of the official celebration
are frequently completely detached from one another.
Which the historical ledgers show so clearly.
I mean, Queen Victoria had been reliably issuing
these honors for decades. But then we get to
King Edward VII. Right. His first birthday as
king was celebrated on November 9, 1901. But
then as you move through the 20th century, the
rules just shift entirely. They realized they
needed a better system. Yeah. Fast forward to
1959. And the United Kingdom officially moved
the monarch's birthday celebration to a Saturday
in early June. They essentially decoupled the
celebration from the monarch's actual birth date.
Just permanently pinned it to a more convenient
weekend, probably for better weather. Mostly
for the weather, yes. But that 1959 shift is
just the timeline for the United Kingdom. Right,
there's a whole world out there. If we look at
how this operates globally, the logistical complexity
multiplies significantly. Bids is not just the
UK. Exactly. Other Commonwealth realms, places
like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ceylon,
and India, they all have their own deep... historical
lists of honors tied to this exact tradition.
And they celebrate the monarch's official birthday
on completely different dates. Wait, really?
So if the dates are completely decoupled, depending
on the country, does that mean the entire bureaucratic
machine of vetting candidates, printing gazettes,
and preparing medals is just staggered across
the globe throughout the year? It is entirely
staggered. Wow. Generally, these celebrations
do fall in late May or early June. But different
sovereign nations under the same monarch are
orchestrating this massive administrative rollout
on their own distinct timelines. I just want
you, the listener, to pause and imagine that
for a second. Imagine trying to coordinate a
single overarching tradition across that many
different time zones. Without the Internet. Yes.
Across entirely different sovereign governments,
well before the era of digital communication
or instant messaging. It's unbelievable. The
sheer volume of paperwork, the diplomatic cables,
the physical ledgers required to keep Ceylon,
Canada, Australia, and the UK aligned on a shared
royal tradition. It's just a staggering feat
of administration. Which is exactly what makes
it all the more notable when the machinery completely
breaks down. Oh yes, here is where it gets really
interesting. A system this grand, with this much
bureaucratic inertia, is expected to run like
clockwork. But if we go back to the archives,
there is a massive disruption right in the middle
of Queen Victoria's reign. Picture the year 1876.
Right. By this point, Queen Victoria had been
reliably issuing these honors for over 15 years.
The public, the military, the government, everyone
expected the list. It was a given. But... In
1876, the official Gazette was published, and
the birthday honors list was simply missing.
Not delayed. Not delayed, it just wasn't there.
And the reaction from the Arrow was severe. A
prominent newspaper from the time, the Broad
Arrow, published a really lengthy, scathing article
about the omission. They did not hold back. No,
they noted a good deal of disappointment sweeping
through the public and the military ranks. But
what is truly remarkable is where they actually
directed their heavy rebuke. Right, they didn't
blame the queen. They largely forgave Queen Victoria
and instead aimed their fury directly at the
Ministry of Defense. The Broad Arrow specifically
targeted the war minister, a man named Gathorne
Hardy. Poor Gathorne Hardy. Seriously. They publicly
dragged him for neglecting to award worthy soldiers
with the Order of the Bath. And we should provide
some context there. The Order of the Bath is
one of the highest and oldest orders of chivalry
for military and civil service. So for a war
minister, to drop the ball on this specific honor.
It's a massive public slight to the armed forces.
Exactly. The paper explicitly stated that the
war minister holds all general patronage of this
description. And if Mr. Hardy neglected to follow
in the beaten track of his predecessors, he alone
was to blame. It is a phenomenal public reprimand.
It highlights a massive assumption of the era.
The monarch might be the technical fount of honor,
but the elected government, specifically the
war minister, was expected to do all the administrative
heavy lifting. The selecting and recommending
of candidates. Right. But the story takes a really
sharp turn here because Queen Victoria did not
simply accept this bureaucratic failure from
her government. She basically executed a massive
royal workaround. She did. If her government
wasn't going to issue the official birthday honors
list, she decided to just bypass them and issue
her own personal honors. She took direct unilateral
action. She appointed the Prince of Wales and
the Duke of Connaught to be her personal aides
-de -camp. And an aide -de -camp is a senior
personal assistant or secretary to a person of
high rank. Correct. In a military context, being
an aide -de -camp to the queen provides a direct,
highly visible line of prestige and proximity
to the sovereign. It completely bypasses standard
military promotions. Exactly. But she didn't
stop there. No, she kept going. She also made
the ailing King George of Hanover a general in
the British Army. Which is quite the statement.
She just handed out high -level military titles
and personal appointments completely outside
the standard Ministry of Defense channels. This
specific incident from 1876 is crucial for understanding
the entire system. It really is. It perfectly
illustrates the historical tension and the delicate
balance of power between the sovereign and the
elected government. A quiet tug of war. Exactly.
Over who actually gets to dispense patronage
and reward loyalty. It shows us that the honor
system is not just a passive list of names. It
is a highly active political tool. Right. When
the war minister failed to act. The queen wielded
her inherent authority to ensure loyalty was
still rewarded. Reminding the government of where
the ultimate power of recognition technically
lay. That adaptability, the way the system flexes
and changes based on the circumstances, brings
up another huge aspect of the birthday honors.
They aren't just issued blindly come rain or
shine. No, there are built -in exceptions and
disruptions. The historical ledgers show several
years where the birthday honors simply do not
exist. But they weren't skipped out of negligence
or political squabbling like in the Gathorne
Hardys situation. Right, they were skipped because
they clashed with other massive royal milestones.
Because if the nation is already throwing a massive
historically significant celebration for the
monarch, a secondary birthday list competing
for a ten - in the Gazette just creates bureaucratic
noise. It muddles the message. Precisely. The
records explicitly note that birthday honors
were not issued when they coincided with Jubilee
honors. Like Queen Victoria's Jubilees. Right.
We see this during her Golden Jubilee in 1887
and her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The entire apparatus
of national recognition pivoted to the Jubilee.
And coronations trigger the exact same pause.
They do. The records list 1911, 1937 and 1953
as years where the birthday honors were completely
replaced by coronation honors. The machinery
just absorbs the birthday into the larger constitutional
event. But it is not only celebratory events
that disrupt the system. Sometimes external global
crises force the machinery to halt entirely.
Which brings our timeline rushing right up into
the modern era. Yes. We don't just have to look
back to the 19th century or the mid 20th century
to see this system get upended. In 2020, the
British honors faced an unprecedented delay.
Right. Because of the severe impact of the COVID
-19 pandemic, the 2020 Queen's birthday honors
list was entirely postponed until the autumn
of that year. Which tells us so much. The honor
system serves as a direct mirror to history.
It really does. When the nation is entirely consumed
by a monumental event, whether that is a rare
jubilee, the coronation of a new monarch, or
a devastating global pandemic, the standard bureaucratic
machine literally pauses to reflect the reality
of the times. It cannot ignore the world around
it. Exactly. The empty spaces in the honors lists
or the delayed publications tell us just as much
about the state of the nation as the lists themselves.
And that brings us to the sheer scale of the
system today. Because when you look at the full
taxonomy of honors in the source material, it
is a dizzying array of categories. It's massive.
We've been focusing on birthdays and New Years,
which are the main annual events. But the ecosystem
of awards goes so much deeper. and gets highly
specific. Beyond the annual calendar, the honor
system is deeply intertwined with the structural
transitions of power within the government itself.
The political lists. Yes, there are political
lists explicitly built into this framework. For
instance, there are dissolution honors, which
are issued when Parliament is officially dissolved
ahead of a general election. And then there are
the prime minister's resignation honors. A very
significant category. The historical record provides
a massive timeline for these. The tradition of
a departing prime minister issuing a resignation
honors list starts way back in 1895. It goes
back a long way. And it stretches all the way
through the 20th century right up to the modern
day. We see lists issued for both Boris Johnson
and Liz Truss in 2022. And it is important to
view this mechanism impartially as we look at
the history. Absolutely. Regardless of the political
climate or the popularity of the departing leader,
the prime minister's resignation honors list
is a standard, longstanding mechanism. It's a
formalized tradition. It allows departing political
leaders to formally recognize their staff, their
political allies, and the public servants who
assisted their administration. It is a formalized,
expected part of the transition of power in the
UK. But the system also marks transitions on
the royal side, specifically marking the end
of an era with a very different tone. Yes, there
is a category known as demise honors. Wait, so
even in death there's a list? Precisely. These
are lists specifically formulated to mark the
passing of major royal figures. They serve as
a way of settling the affairs of a royal household.
Okay, that makes sense. It's about officially
rewarding the staff, the advisors, and the loyal
retainers who served the departed royal, often
for decades. The records specifically point out
demise honors being issued for the Queen Mother
and Princess Margaret in 2002. Yes. And for Prince
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. in 2021, and most
recently for Queen Elizabeth II in 2023. It is
incredibly poignant when you really think about
it. It is. The machinery that spends decades
celebrating their official birthdays in life
is the exact same machinery that issues a final
concluding list of honors upon their demise.
It provides a profound sense of bureaucratic
closure to a historical era. A final ledger entry.
Exactly. And beyond the realms of life, death,
and political transitions, there is a whole host
of other special categories that truly illustrate
the breadth of the system. There is an entire
infrastructure for very specific human achievements
and events. Yes, like the Bravery Awards and
Gallantry Awards. Which have their own massive
historical ledgers documenting extraordinary
acts by citizens and soldiers alike. There are
also Royal Visit Honors. What are those exactly?
They are granted to mark a significant royal
tour to a Commonwealth nation. New Zealand, for
example, has records of royal visit honors dating
all the way back to 1901. That's fascinating.
And there are highly specific commemorative medals,
too. Yes, those are very unique. A great example
from the historical record is the New Zealand
Suffrage Centennial Medal. That was issued in
1993 to mark a major milestone in civil rights
history. That's a great example. Rather than
just a general honor, it is a bespoke medal.
minted for a specific national reflection. If
we step back and look at this vast ecosystem
from the delayed pandemic lists to the demise
honors to medals for political staff and centennial
suffrage celebrations, it shows us something
important. That the system is adaptable. Yes,
that the honor system is far more than just a
ceremonial relic. It is a comprehensive historical
ledger. Every major transition of power, every
national tragedy. Every recognized act of heroism
and every significant political. shift leaves
a tangible paper trail of medals, titles, and
gazette entries. It is the history of a nation
and a commonwealth written in the form of bureaucratic
recognition. Very well said. We have taken quite
a journey today. We really have covered a lot
of ground. We started with the basic mechanics
of how an official birthday can be shifted from
November to June just for logistical ease. And
better weather. And better weather. We explored
Queen Victoria completely bypassing her own war
minister with rogue military appointments back
in 1876. A great moment in bureaucratic history.
We've seen how global events like jubilees, coronations,
and modern pandemics force the entire system
to adapt and pause. And we've mapped out the
vast, intricate ecosystem of political and royal
awards that govern the transitions of power.
It really is a remarkable framework to analyze.
It takes these abstract concepts like loyalty,
service, and historical transition, and it turns
them into physical metals and permanent public
records. And for you listening, here's why this
deeply matters. The next time you're reading
the news and you see a newly minted Sir Ordain
being celebrated, you aren't just looking at
a fancy title anymore. No, you're seeing the
end result of a very long process. You now understand.
The massive centuries old bureaucratic and historical
machinery working tirelessly behind the scenes
across multiple continents to make that single
moment happen. But as we conclude, it is worth
considering a broader implication. Absolutely.
We have spent all this time looking at how prime
ministers and monarchs use this system from the
top down. Right. Rewarding military service,
political allies and royal retainers. But with
the sheer volume of political honors we discussed,
like dissolution and Prime Minister's resignation
lists, it raises a fascinating question for the
future. What's that? As we move deeper into the
21st century, will the story of a nation's elite
be defined more by the timeless traditions of
the crown or by the rapidly changing tides of
departing political leaders? Wow. That is a phenomenal
question to leave off on. As society evolves,
so too must the ledgers that record its greatest
achievements. Thank you so much for joining us
on this deep dive today. We hope we've given
you some incredible insights to mull over. Keep
asking questions, keep looking past the surface,
and keep your curiosity alive until next time.