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Her Majesty, who will be joined by the Prince of Wales as
Great Master of the order, will invest new senior knights during
the occasion as well as attending the religious service during the
occasion. The chapel of the order is Henry VII Lady Chapel
inside Westminster Abbey, where the actual investiture of the
knights will take place on Friday morning.
The origins of the Order of the Bath are from the traditional
ceremony where knights would be bathed before being invested in a
ritual ‘purification’ – nowadays knights are not bathed as part of
the ceremony.
The order itself was properly established by letters patent under
the great seal on 18 May 1725, instituted by King George I.
Members of the order will join Her Majesty in the chapel in the
full dress of the Order – including The Queen herself in the
order’s full mantle.
Some of the other traditions of the order however (perhaps
fortunately) are not maintained. Traditionally, when the procession
of Knights used to leave by the west door after the service the
king’s cook, with carving knife in hand, would stand at the door of
the Abbey and threatened each knight as he left promising to “hack
off your spurs from your heels” if he dishonoured the Order.
Whilst the Bath service is service is held every four years, the
Sovereign only attends each alternate service meaning the next time
Her Majesty would attend the service would be in 2022, her platinum
jubilee year.
Nowadays, there are 3 grades in the Order of the Bath since the
changes made by the Prince Regent in 1815 to expand the order. The
lowest grade of the order is Companion, which allows the member to
add the letters CB after their name.
There is then the first grade of knightood – Knight/Dame Commander
(KCB/DCB) and then Knight/Dame
Grand Cross (GCB) members at these grade use the title
of Sir or Dame.
One of the privileges of the Order of the Bath is that members and
their children may be married in Westminster Abbey, a privilege
otherwise reserved only for the Royal Family. Members also get
their heraldic banners hung up in the Abbey.
The order is typically reserved for those in the diplomatic and
civil service and officers of the Armed Forces these days, though
the order does allow for honorary appointments too for people from
foreign nations. For example, President of South Africa Jacob Zuma
holds an honorary GCB – this differs from a substantive GCB mainly
in that the holder is not entitled to the usual style of Sir.
In the order of precedence for chivalric orders in the United
Kingdom, the Order of the Bath ranks just behind the Order of the
Thistle and just ahead of the Order of Saint Michael and
Saint George.
The Queen’s appearance at the Bath service on Friday will be one of
many services for her orders of chivalry she will attend this year.
As well as the annual Order of the Garter service on 16th June at
Windsor Castle, Her Majesty is also set to attend the Order of the
Thistle service this year (which is held every other year) in
June/July.
photo credit: Defence Images via photopin
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