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Buckingham Palace has announced that the former heads of the Bank
of England and MI5 have been appointed to the Order of the Garter
by The Queen.
Mervyn King was made Knight Companion and Eliza Manningham-Buller
was appointed Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the
Garter.
The Lord King and Baroness Manningham-Buller fill two of the three
vacancies that were open due to the deaths of Baroness Thatcher,
Lord Kingsdown and Viscount Ridley. The number of Companions no
stands at 23 out of the 24 allowed.
Those chosen for the honour have held public office, contributed to
national life or served the sovereign personally.
Lord King of Lothbury was governor of the Bank of England from 2003
until 2013. He began his career at the Bank in 1991 Bank as chief
economist and executive director. He was chosen a life peer by the
Queen for “contributions to public service” and in 2013 entered the
House of Lords as a crossbencher.
From 2002 until she retired in 2007, Baroness Manningham-Buller was
director general of the Security She began working at MI5 in 1974.
In April 2008, Baroness Manningham-Buller became a crossbench life
peer.
New appointments to
the Order of the Garter are named on St George’s Day, 23
April. The ceremony takes place on Garter Day which is the Monday
of Royal Ascot week in June.
The Queen officially invests new Companions with the insignia of
the Order of the Garter in the Garter Throne Room at Windsor
Castle.
The Queen as Monarch is sovereign of the Order makes the
appointments without consultation to her ministers.
Other members of the Order include Winston Churchill’s youngest
daughter, The Lady Soames, former Prime Minister Sir John Major and
The Duke of Cambridge, who became the 1,000th Knight of the Garter
in 2008.
photo credit: hmcotterill and IanVisits via photopin
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