Awarded by the United Kingdom "to such persons ... as may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service in Our Crown Services or towards the advancement of the Arts, Learning, Literature, and Science or such other exceptional service." Limited to 24 living honorees at any time.
| Name | Occupation | Birth | Death | Known for |
|---|
| Edgar Adrian |
Scientist |
30-Nov-1889 |
4-Aug-1977 |
Electricity within nerve cells |
| Samuel Alexander |
Philosopher |
6-Jan-1859 |
13-Sep-1938 |
Space, Time, and Deity |
| Lawrence Alma-Tadema |
Painter |
8-Jan-1836 |
25-Jun-1912 |
Classicist painter |
| Michael Atiyah |
Mathematician |
22-Apr-1929 |
|
Atiyah-Singer index theorem |
| Clement Attlee |
Head of State |
3-Jan-1883 |
8-Oct-1967 |
UK Prime Minister, 1945-51 |
| Arthur Balfour |
Head of State |
25-Jul-1848 |
19-Mar-1930 |
UK Prime Minister, 1902-05 |
| James W. Black |
Scientist |
14-Jun-1924 |
22-Mar-2010 |
Propranolol and cimetidine |
| Patrick M. S. Blackett |
Physicist |
18-Nov-1897 |
13-Jul-1974 |
Cosmic radiation, continental drift |
| Betty Boothroyd |
Politician |
8-Oct-1929 |
|
Speaker of the House of Commons, 1992-2000 |
| William Bragg |
Physicist |
2-Jul-1862 |
12-Mar-1942 |
Analyzed crystal structures |
| Benjamin Britten |
Composer |
22-Nov-1913 |
4-Dec-1976 |
Billy Budd |
| Alan Brooke |
Military |
23-Jul-1883 |
17-Jun-1963 |
Chief military advisor to Churchill |
| Frank Macfarlane Burnet |
Scientist |
3-Sep-1899 |
31-Aug-1985 |
Acquired immunological tolerance |
| Winston S. Churchill |
Politician |
10-Oct-1940 |
2-Mar-2010 |
British MP, Manchester, 1970-97 |
| John Cockcroft |
Physicist |
27-May-1897 |
18-Sep-1967 |
Split the atom |
| Henry Dale |
Scientist |
9-Jun-1875 |
23-Jul-1968 |
Acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter |
| Walter de la Mare |
Poet |
25-Apr-1873 |
22-Jun-1956 |
Memoirs of a Midget |
| Paul Dirac |
Physicist |
8-Aug-1902 |
20-Oct-1984 |
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics |
| Arthur Eddington |
Astronomer |
28-Dec-1882 |
22-Nov-1944 |
Eddington luminosity |
| Edward Elgar |
Composer |
2-Jun-1857 |
23-Feb-1934 |
Pomp and Circumstance |
| T. S. Eliot |
Poet |
26-Sep-1888 |
4-Jan-1965 |
Author of "The Waste Land" |
| Howard Florey |
Scientist |
24-Sep-1898 |
21-Feb-1968 |
Isolated penicillin |
| Norman Foster |
Architect |
1-Jun-1935 |
|
Architect of the Gherkin |
| Graham Greene |
Novelist |
2-Oct-1904 |
3-Apr-1991 |
The Third Man |
| Thomas Hardy |
Novelist |
2-Jun-1840 |
11-Jan-1928 |
Far from the Madding Crowd |
| Werner Heisenberg |
Physicist |
5-Dec-1901 |
1-Feb-1976 |
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle |
| Sir Cyril Hinshelwood |
Chemist |
19-Jun-1897 |
9-Oct-1967 |
The Kinetics of Chemical Change |
| Alan L. Hodgkin |
Scientist |
5-Feb-1914 |
20-Dec-1998 |
Electrical impulses in nerves |
| Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin |
Chemist |
12-May-1910 |
29-Jul-1994 |
Determined structure of Vitamin B12 |
| Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Botanist |
30-Jun-1817 |
10-Dec-1911 |
Genera Plantarum |
| Frederick Hopkins |
Scientist |
20-Jun-1861 |
16-May-1947 |
Discovered vitamins |
| William Huggins |
Astronomer |
7-Feb-1824 |
12-May-1910 |
Spectrographic astronomy pioneer |
| William Holman Hunt |
Painter |
2-Apr-1827 |
7-Sep-1910 |
British Pre-Raphaelite painter |
| Robert H. Jackson |
Judge |
13-Feb-1892 |
9-Oct-1954 |
US Supreme Court Justice, 1941-54 |
| James H. Jeans |
Astronomer |
11-Sep-1877 |
16-Sep-1946 |
Continuous creation theory |
| Horatio Herbert Kitchener |
Military |
24-Jun-1850 |
5-Jun-1916 |
Field Marshal, Secretary of State for War |
| Aaron Klug |
Chemist |
11-Aug-1926 |
|
Structural analysis of viruses |
| Joseph Lister |
Doctor |
5-Apr-1827 |
10-Feb-1912 |
Pioneer of antiseptic surgery |
| John Masefield |
Poet |
1-Jun-1878 |
12-May-1967 |
Poet Laureate of England, 1930-67 |
| Peter Medawar |
Biologist |
28-Feb-1915 |
2-Oct-1987 |
Acquired immunological tolerance |
| George Meredith |
Novelist |
12-Feb-1828 |
18-May-1909 |
The Egoist |
| Florence Nightingale |
Activist |
12-May-1820 |
13-Aug-1910 |
Established nursing as a profession |
| Max F. Perutz |
Chemist |
19-May-1914 |
6-Feb-2002 |
X-Ray analysis of hemoglobin |
| George Porter |
Chemist |
6-Dec-1920 |
31-Aug-2002 |
Rapid chemical and biological processes |
| Lord Rayleigh |
Physicist |
12-Nov-1842 |
30-Jun-1919 |
Why the sky is blue |
| Martin Rees |
Astronomer |
23-Jun-1942 |
|
President of the Royal Society |
| Sir Robert Robinson |
Chemist |
13-Sep-1886 |
8-Feb-1975 |
Researcher of alkaloids |
| Jacob Rothschild |
Business |
29-Apr-1936 |
|
RIT Capital Partners |
| Bertrand Russell |
Mathematician |
18-May-1872 |
2-Feb-1970 |
Mathematician, atheist, and social critic |
| Ernest Rutherford |
Physicist |
30-Aug-1871 |
19-Oct-1937 |
Father of nuclear physics |
| Frederick Sanger |
Chemist |
13-Aug-1918 |
|
Two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry |
| Albert Schweitzer |
Activist |
14-Jan-1875 |
4-Sep-1965 |
Humanitarian and theologian |
| Charles Sherrington |
Doctor |
27-Nov-1857 |
4-Mar-1952 |
Neurons and synapses |
| Joan Sutherland |
Singer |
7-Nov-1926 |
10-Oct-2010 |
"La Stupenda" opera soprano |
| J. J. Thomson |
Physicist |
18-Dec-1856 |
30-Aug-1940 |
Discovered the electron |
| Alexander R. Todd |
Chemist |
2-Oct-1907 |
10-Jan-1997 |
Nuclaic acid, nucleotides |
| William Walton |
Composer |
29-Mar-1902 |
8-Mar-1983 |
Troilus and Cressida |
| Thomas J. Watson |
Business |
17-Feb-1874 |
19-Jun-1956 |
Led IBM into the computer era |
| Alfred North Whitehead |
Mathematician |
15-Feb-1861 |
30-Dec-1947 |
Metaphysical mathematician |
| John G. Winant |
Politician |
23-Feb-1889 |
3-Nov-1947 |
New Hampshire governor, committed suicide |
