Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index 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. 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 Carré, 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 This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.