National Honours - The Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall

A national honour is a unique form of national recognition, a distinctive way of acknowledging someone’s impact on life, whether at a very local or at a national level.

They are given in order to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements and they are open to everyone from all walks of life and all sections of society, provided they have made a difference to their community or in their field of work. Nominations can be made by anyone at any time.

Who gets an honour?

Some reasons people are given awards include:

making a difference to their community or field of work
enhancing Britain’s reputation
long-term voluntary service
innovation and entrepreneurship
changing things, with an emphasis on achievement
improving life for people less able to help themselves
displaying moral courage

National honours are for individuals, so if you are thinking of nominating an organisation or group please look on the pages about The King’s Award for Voluntary Service and The King’s Awards for Enterprise.

What honours are given?

When writing a nomination you are not asked to say what level of award you are aiming at. This is decided by the Cabinet Office Committees when they read the nomination letters. However, as a guide the National Honours are:

British Empire Medal (BEM): awarded for very “hands-on” service to the community in a local geographical area.

Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE): recognises an achievement or service to the community which has delivered a sustained impact, and which stands out as an example to others.

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): recognises those who have performed a distinguished regional or county-wide role in any field.

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): rewards a prominent national or regional role.

Dame or Knight: for those who have made a pre-eminent contribution in any field, usually at a national level.

How to nominate someone:

There is considerable competition for Honours and every nomination will go through a rigorous process of evaluation and discussion. Therefore, it does take time to complete a nomination. However, it is well worth it, because if successful it gives enormous pleasure not only to the person receiving the award, but to all their family, friends and colleagues.

Full details of how to nominate someone for a national honour are at https://www.gov.uk/honours.

Some Tips

The nomination is the only evidence that people involved in the Honours process will get to see about your nominee, so the key to success is the quality of the information on the form. You may go to great lengths to identify a good candidate, who could then be unsuccessful if the nomination is not well written. It’s highly unlikely that those who deal with the honours in London will know your nominee, so it is important that you tell an interesting and compelling story on their behalf. The nomination must cover your candidate’s impact on their community or organisation and focus on their recent achievements. Think about why your candidate should receive an Honour and concentrate on that.
A nomination should not be an extended CV, a list of appointments, awards or posts, or a job description showing what the person has done. This is one of the most common reasons for a nomination to be unsuccessful. What those who make the decisions want to know is what impact the person has had on their community or profession, what achievements they have made as a result and evidence of what the person has done that is above and beyond what might expected in their role. To this end, facts and figures are really important: it’s not good enough to say that they are “wonderful”, “outstanding”, “pillar of the community” or whatever; you must also back this up with as much detail as possible as to why they are these things and show evidence of what they have achieved.
Start the nomination with a really strong summary of the main achievements of your nominee. Concentrate on what the person is doing now, or has done until perhaps 6 months ago. Although it may be worth mentioning things achieved in the past, the Honours Committees are only really interested in what the person is doing now, at the time they have been nominated.
To avoid disappointment in case the nomination does not succeed, you must not tell the person you are nominating that you are doing so. However, that does not mean that you cannot discuss the nomination with their spouse/partner, family, friends and colleagues. Indeed you will almost certainly need to in order to get all your facts together; just make sure they don’t tell the person being nominated!
The letters of support make up a very important part of the nomination. Try to get people to write about different aspects of the person you are nominating, in order to add to what you have said in the Form. Although it is good to get people of standing in the community to write these letters, this will only help if they really know the person concerned and can add value to the nomination. It is helpful to get a range of letters, ideally perhaps from people your nominee has helped in their work, from colleagues and also from senior people who may have a broader view of your nominee’s achievements.

What happens after you have nominated someone?

Once you have sent off the nomination to London, it will be considered by the Honours & Appointments Secretariat in London. This process generally takes between 18 months and 2 years, so don’t worry if you hear nothing for a long time. The reason for the process taking so long is because there are a great many nominations and each one has to be checked very carefully by a number of Departments before it can be assessed by a number of Boards. It then has to be signed off by the Prime Minister and approved by HM The King.

If after two years you have heard nothing, it is likely that the nomination will not have succeeded against the stiff competition that exists; however, at that stage you may want to get in touch with the Lieutenancy Office, who may be able to establish whether the nomination has indeed failed, or whether more information is needed.

On the other hand, if you have written a good nomination then at that stage you will find your nominee’s name appearing on one of the two Honours Lists, the first at the New Year and the second on The King’s Official Birthday in June. The recipient will be thrilled and you can be very proud of your handiwork.

Receiving an Award

The Lord-Lieutenant is responsible for responsible for awarding the BEMs and this will happen at one of a variety of places around Cornwall, award winners being accompanied by their families, friends and colleagues. They are often presented in County Hall in Truro but presentations have taken place in a wide variety of other suitable locations as well: stately homes such as Mt Edgcumbe, the recipient’s place of work, varying from harbours and RNLI stations, as well as in churches and community halls and in people’s own houses. In addition, recipients of the BEM are invited to one of the Royal Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace.

Those who are awarded the MBE and more senior medals are able to go to Buckingham Palace, with three guests, to receive their award from a member of the Royal Family. They can also choose to have the medal given by the Lord-Lieutenant in Cornwall.

Recent Recipients of Awards

To see lists of those who have recently received national awards, see the News section of the website.