David Beckham is knighted in the King’s birthday honours, more than ten years after he was said to have been blocked over his involvement in a tax scheme.
Beckham, who has won league titles in four countries and 115 caps for England, has been awarded the honour for services to sport and charity, after passing the stringent government checks.
He is among 1,215 recipients on this year’s birthday honours list, which also includes Claudia Winkleman, the actor Gary Oldman, darts prodigy Luke Littler, the Who’s frontman Roger Daltrey, the official in charge of securing Britain’s borders for the past four years and hundreds of medics, community activists and charity fundraisers.
A royal honour
Dr Nicholas Hugh Brown, the Queen’s GP, and consultant urologist Ranan Dasgupta both receive the Royal Victoria Order, an honour given to royal household staff.
The honour comes during a year in which the medical household has provided additional support to the royal family. After a visit to Australia and Samoa in the autumn, the Queen had a chest infection, which was later revealed to be a form of pneumonia.
Dasgupta, sergeant-surgeon to the royal medical household, previously worked at King Edward VII’s hospital in London, where he specialised in prostate disease and kidney stones. In January 2024, the King was admitted to the London Clinic, a private hospital in Mayfair, where he was treated for an enlarged prostate. While there, doctors discovered a separate area of concern and later diagnosed him with cancer for which he is still receiving treatment.
The King’s head valet Lee Dobson, a member of the RVO, has been made a lieutenant. David Quick, house manager at Bagshot Park, the Surrey mansion of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, has been made a member of the order.
Footballing knight
Beckham was first tipped for a knighthood in 2011, but leaked emails revealed he was blocked over his involvement with a tax scheme.
Beckham said: “Growing up in east London with parents and grandparents who were so patriotic and proud to be British, I never could have imagined I would receive such a truly humbling honour.
“To have played for and captained my country was the greatest privilege of my career and literally a boyhood dream come true.”
Honours for the arts and music
Winkleman has said she is “incredibly grateful” to become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The Traitors presenter is honoured alongside her Strictly Come Dancing co-host, Tess Daly, for services to broadcasting.
Winkleman said: “It’s a real privilege to work with extraordinarily talented people and I have only got this because of them. So this is for the BBC, the traitors and the faithful, for pianos and for the cha-cha.
“I will buy a hat and am taking my mum. I am ridiculously lucky and will celebrate with Tess by doing a paso doble.”
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Daltrey is knighted for services to charity and music. He thanked his band and their fans for supporting the Teenage Cancer Trust, of which he is a patron.
He said: “It is a wonderful honour for me and especially for Teenage Cancer Trust. I accept this award not only for myself but on behalf of all the unsung heroes who have given their energy towards making the Teenage Cancer Trust the success it has become.”
Oldman receives a knighthood, while the singer-songwriter Steve Winwood and actress Tracy-Ann Oberman are made MBE. The singer Elaine Paige receives a damehood.
The actress Adjoa Andoh, who described the royal family’s Coronation appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony as “terribly white”, receives an MBE. Andoh, an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who plays Lady Danbury in the hit Netflix series Bridgerton, said during ITV’s coverage of the Coronation: “We’ve gone from the rich diversity of the Abbey to a terribly white balcony. I was very struck by that.”
Shane Connolly, the florist who designed the flowers for the Coronation as well as the King and Queen’s wedding, and that of the Prince and Princess of Wales, is made MBE.
Billionaire convicted over hiding wife’s corpse becomes a Sir
A billionaire who turned his life around after he was sentenced for hiding his wife’s body in a barricaded room for two months has been knighted for services to the arts.
Hans Kristian Rausing, the heir to the Tetrapak fortune, has given away more than £330 million through the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust, including more than £50 million to British charities annually. Julia Rausing, who died of cancer last year, was the billionaire’s second wife. His first wife Eva died in 2012 of suspected heart failure, coupled with drug use, aged 48.
After Eva’s death, Rausing said he could not bear to “let her leave” and, struggling with addiction himself, hid her body in an upstairs bedroom they shared. She was discovered after he was arrested for driving erratically in Wandsworth, and police found drug paraphernalia in their car. He tested positive for cocaine, morphine, temazepam and diazepam, and was sentenced to ten months in jail suspended for two years for preventing the decent and lawful burial of his wife, and a concurrent two-month suspended sentence for driving under the influence of drugs.
However, he has turned his life around, particularly after meeting Julia. Together they built a philanthropic foundation, giving away hundreds of millions to charities struggling during the pandemic, as well as funding arts institutions including the National Gallery. All of his fundraising is now done through the Julia Rausing Trust.
Rausing said: “This recognition would have meant a great deal to my late wife, Julia, whose foresight led to the establishment of our charitable trust in 2014. It is as much a tribute to her work and legacy as it is to me.”
Orlando Fraser KC, former chair of the Charity Commission, said: “Sir Hans has been on his own journey through tragic addiction to positive rehabilitation, in which philanthropy has played a big part. It is to the credit of the country that this has been recognised today, with an award that also kindly honours Julia’s memory.”
In a memorial service for Julia, Fraser, praised her legacy, saying: “Julia leaves a literally incredible philanthropic legacy, having conducted with Hans a massive campaign of giving to British charities since 2014 that places these Rausing heirs to Tetrapak on a par with the philanthropy of Carnegie or Frick in their heyday.”
Honours for sporting prowess
Littler, who became the youngest world darts champion aged 17 this year, is made MBE.
Luke Humphries, who beat Littler in the 2024 PDC World Championship final, is made MBE. Deta Hedman, who became the first black woman to play at the PDC World Championship in 2020, is made OBE.
Shooting for the stars
Sir Antony Gormley, the sculptor who created the Angel of the North, joins David Hockney, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir David Attenborough, as a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, of which there are only ever 65.
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsar stars, is made a member of the order.
The official in charge of securing Britain’s borders for the past four years becomes a Companion of the Order of the Bath, used to recognise senior military officials and civil servants.
About 100,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Channel by small boat since Phil Douglas was appointed director-general of the Border Force.
Douglas was previously in charge of changing the asylum system, having started his career as an immigration officer at Heathrow. Two other Border Force officials also receive honours. Last year, Douglas was awarded a bonus of up to £20,000 on top of his £135,000 salary.
Honours for civil service
Sarah Healey, the top civil servant in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is made a dame.
Healey, once tipped to be the country’s top civil servant, led the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2019 to 2023.
Healey told a conference in 2021 that working from home was a “very, very, good thing”, and allowed more efficient use of her time. “I have a Peloton and I can just get on my bike whenever I have a teeny bit of time. That has been a huge benefit to my wellbeing,” she said.
This led to criticism from Conservative politicians. Oliver Dowden, then Tory chairman, told a fringe event that although he liked Healey, “I’m disagreeing with her on this one. People need to get off their Pelotons and get back to their desks.”
Penny Mordaunt, the former Conservative MP who was leader of the House of Commons, is made a dame.
Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP and chair of the science and technology select committee, is awarded a damehood.
Mark Tami, the Labour MP for Alyn & Deeside in Wales since 2001, who is the government’s deputy chief whip, receives a knighthood. Several former MPs and political advisers have also received awards for political and public service.
Maria Caulfield, the former Conservative health minister who lost her seat in last year’s general election, receives a CBE, as does Peter Hyman, who was Sir Keir Starmer’s senior adviser in opposition.
Two former Labour MPs receive honours. Dari Taylor is made an OBE and Gordon Marsden an MBE.
Pamela Duncan-Glancy, the Scottish Labour MSP who is the first permanent wheelchair user elected to the Scottish parliament, also receives an MBE.
Honours for campaigning
Charlotte Charles, whose son Harry Dunn was killed when a car driven by American Anne Sacoolas while she drove on the wrong side of the road, receives an MBE for services to road safety. The US asserted diplomatic immunity on Sacoolas’s behalf, and she was allowed to leave the UK, but was ultimately handed a suspended prison sentence for causing Harry’s death.
Paramedics and doctors who treated victims of the Southport knife attacks are given British Empire Medals for their response to the tragedy.
Paul Smith and Dr George Bramham treated victims at the scene, while Martin Johnson and Elizabeth Parsons, who were part of the surgical team who treated the victims, also receive medals.
A mother, father and daughter are awarded British Empire Medals, the first time three members of the same family have been honoured simultaneously. Caroline and Duncan Speirs, and their daughter Jenna, founded Calum’s Cabin in honour of their son, Jenna’s twin brother, who died of cancer aged 11.
The charity provides holiday homes free of charge to families going through cancer, and also homes and flats in Glasgow so families are not split up while a child undergoes treatment.
Jenna, a therapeutic radiographer at Edinburgh Cancer Centre, said: “I work with cancer every day and I think that the King being so open about his diagnosis has been great for men.”
Alison Madgin and her daughter, Carly Barrett, founded Samantha’s Legacy, a knife crime prevention charity, in honour of Samantha Madgin, who was stabbed to death age 18 just weeks after giving birth to a son. Barett said the honour was “bittersweet”, adding: “We had to lose Samantha to receive that, and really it’s her who I want to tell.”
