List of people who have declined a British honour
The following is a partial list of people who have declined a British honour, such as a knighthood or an Order of the British Empire. In most cases, the honour was rejected privately; others were rejected publicly, or accepted then returned later, as with John Lennon and Rabindranath Tagore. Some potential recipients have rejected one honour, then accepted another one (such as Alfred Hitchcock).Many of these were identified in December 2003 when a confidential document containing over 300 names of such people was leaked to the Sunday Times:
- Peter Alliss, golf professional
- Frank Auerbach, artist
- Francis Bacon, artist
- J. G. Ballard, author
- Alan Bennett
- Isaiah Berlin
- Honor Blackman, Bond girl and actress in The Avengers
- David Bowie, artist and actor
- Kenneth Branagh, actor and director
- Jim Broadbent
- John Cleese, comedian
- John Cole
- Roald Dahl, author
- Bernie Ecclestone, owner of Formula One
- Albert Finney, actor
- Michael Frayn
- Dawn French, comedienne
- Lucian Freud
- Robert Graves
- Graham Greene, author
- Lenny Henry
- Alfred Hitchcock, director
- David Hockney
- Trevor Howard
- Aldous Huxley, author
- Anish Kapoor
- Philip Larkin
- Richard Lambert
- Nigella Lawson, cook
- John le CarrÃÂé, author
- John Lennon, artist
- Doris Lessing, author
- Ken Loach, director
- L. S. Lowry
- Barry McGuigan, boxer
- George Melly
- Helen Mirren, actress
- Harold Pinter, playwright
- Anthony Powell
- J. B. Priestley
- Vanessa Redgrave, actress
- Jennifer Saunders, comedienne
- Alastair Sim
- Claire Tomalin
- Polly Toynbee
- Evelyn Waugh
- Rachel Whiteread
- Benjamin Zephaniah, poet