A list was released yesterday that revealed 277 people who rejected honors from the Queen between 1951 and 1999. The information was protected by the Cabinet Office until a BBC Freedom of Information request and only includes the names of those who have passed away.
What is unclear from the list is the reason why he would have declined the honor. The Belfast-born Mr. Lewis, known for his great writing achievements, turned down the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1952. It was just over a decade before his death. Lewis was also known to be modest about his achievements. That was the same year in which The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released.
Among the other prominent figures revealed to have rejected honours was Irish-born officer Roger Casement, who forfeited an award. Sir Alfred Hitchcock rejected an honour in 1962 but later accepted a knighthood.
Mabey he didn’t like the idea the people were seeing him as a great man when he wanted people to be looking at God and saying how great He is. Just a thoght.
I ment “Thought”. Typo!
Just a little point of order. He turned down the CBE. Recipients of the CBE are not entitled to use the honorific Sir before their name.
It’s also questionable on whether or not he would have been able to use it due to his birth in Ireland, a nation that had declared independence from Britain in 1921, but I bet he would have been able to if he were granted the higher honors.
Thanks for the update! I’ll change the story to reflect this. I just thought it was the case as Sir Alfred Hitchcock was entitled to use “Sir.”
Well, he was born in Belfast which is in Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is still part of Great Britain. It’s the Republic of Ireland that is independent. I’m sure using the CBE would not have been an issue in Northern Ireland – Well, not an issue for Irish Protestants at any rate.
I’m guessing he just a modest man who didn’t feel the need to have grand honors heaped upon him. ;o)
Perhaps his allegience was to Jesus of Nazareth and not to a transient monarch. His popularity through The Chronicles of Narnia would certainly seem to suggest this.
The Irish also have a grudge against the English for usurping their lands. Remember the Paul McCartney song about “give ireland back to the Irish”.
I would have to agree that may be a possibility. Though I’m not totally convinced that that was why he did it.
Paul,
There’s no mystery about Lewis’s reason for ejection of this honor, offered by Churchill in gratitude for his wartime service to give the nation hope through his BBC broadcast, and it has been known for many years. It is covered in his published correspondence:
“I feel greatly obliged to the Prime Minister, and so far as my personal feelings are concerned this honour would be highly agreeable,” he wrote. However, he added that many people said or believed that Christianity is basically, “covert anti-Leftist propaganda, and my appearance in the Honours List would of course strengthen their hands. It is therefore better that I should not appear there.” (W. Hooper, ed. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, volume III, p. 147.)
Awesome! Thanks for the comment, Bruce! That’s very helpful. Mind if I amend the post?
Hehe. Yup. I was just going to browse through my Lewis library to look for that quote, but it looks like Bruce Edwards beat me to it. 😀 In fact, I think Wikipedia has had him listed on “People who have refused to become a CBE”, or some other list of the sort.
At least one of the biographies, IIRC, takes pains to point out that Tolkien accepted a CBE, while Lewis opted out. 😀 (Alternatively, that might have been the Wiki page, which is loading veeery slowly for me right now. hehe.)