Editing Order of Merit (section)

==History==
In around 1773, [[George III]] considered establishing an [[Order of chivalry|order of knighthood]] to be called the "Order of [[Minerva]]" with membership restricted to 24 distinguished artists and authors.<ref name="Minerva">{{cite book |last=Huish |first=Robert |date=1821 |title=Public and Private Life of His Late Excellent and Most Gracious Majesty George The Third |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxtNAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live |location=London |publisher=Thomas Kelly |archive-date=7 May 2022 |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507113724/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Public_and_Private_Life_of_His_Late/rxtNAAAAMAAJ }}</ref> Knights would be entitled to the post-nominal letters ''KM'', and would wear a silver nine-pointed breast star with the image of Minerva at its centre, along with a "straw-coloured" [[sash]] worn across the chest from the right shoulder.<ref name="Minerva"/> The [[motto]] of the Order would be ''"Omnia posthabita scientiae"'' (in [[Latin]], 'Everything comes after science'). Once the King's proposal was made public, however, arguments within intellectual circles over who would be most deserving of the new order grew so heated that George ultimately dropped the idea,<ref name="Minerva"/> though he briefly reconsidered it in 1789; on 6 February of that year, he revised the design of the order, with the breast star to have sixteen points, the motto to be the Latin for "Learning improves character" and with membership to include distinguished scientists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Andrew |date=2021 |title=The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III |publisher=Viking |page=526 |isbn=9781984879264}}</ref> Following the [[Battle of Trafalgar]] in 1805, [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] [[Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham]] and [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]] exchanged correspondence concerning the possible creation of an order of merit, though nothing came of the idea.<ref name=Martin11>{{Harvnb| Martin| 2007| p=11}}</ref>

Later, [[Queen Victoria]], her [[courtier]]s, and politicians alike,<ref>{{Harvnb| Martin| 2007| p=12}}</ref> thought that a new order, based on the [[Prussia]]n order ''[[Pour le Mérite]]'', would make up for the insufficient recognition offered by the established [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom|honours system]] to achievement outside public service, in fields such as art, music, literature, industry and science.<ref name=Martin11/> Victoria's husband, [[Albert, Prince Consort]], took an interest in the matter; it was recorded in his diary that he met Sir [[Robert Peel]] on 16 January 1844 to discuss the "idea of institution of a civil Order of Merit" and, three days later, he conferred with the Queen on the subject.<ref>{{Harvnb| Martin| 2007| p=13}}</ref>

Though nothing came of the idea at the time, the concept did not wither and, more than 40 years later, on 5 January 1888, Prime Minister [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury]] submitted to the by then long-widowed Queen a draft constitution for an Order of Merit in Science and Art, consisting of one grade split into two branches of knighthood: the Order of Scientific Merit, for Knights of Merit in Science, with the post-nominal letters ''KMS'', and the Order of Artistic Merit, for Knights of Merit in Art, with the post-nominal letters ''KMA''. However, [[Frederic Leighton]], President of the [[Royal Academy of Arts]], advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process.<ref>{{Harvnb| Martin| 2007| pp=18–20}}</ref> 
[[File:King-Edward-VII (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|King [[Edward VII]], founder of the Order of Merit]]

It was Victoria's son [[Edward VII]] who eventually founded the Order of Merit on 26 June 1902 (the date for which his coronation had been originally scheduled<ref>{{Harvnb| Martin| 2007| p=1}}</ref>) as a means to acknowledge "exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of Art, Literature and Science".<ref>{{cite book| last=Mountbatten| first=Philip| author-link=Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh| date=2007| contribution=Foreword| contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWVscq9SdgYC| editor-last=Martin| editor-first=Stanley| title=The Order of Merit: One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour| pages=xvii| place=London| publication-place=New York| publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.| isbn=978-1-86064-848-9| access-date=24 September 2016| archive-date=25 November 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125152915/https://books.google.com/books?id=zWVscq9SdgYC| url-status=live}}</ref> All modern aspects of the order were established under his direction, including the division for military figures.<ref name=Jackson/>

From the outset, prime ministers attempted to propose candidates or [[Lobbying|lobbied]] to influence the monarch's decision on appointments. But, the [[Royal Households of the United Kingdom|Royal Household]] adamantly guarded information about potential names.<ref name=Jackson/> After 1931, when the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] came into effect and the [[Dominion]]s of the [[British Empire]] became independent countries within the empire, equal in status to the UK, the Order of Merit continued as an honour open to all these realms and, in many, became a part of their newly developing national honours systems.<ref>{{cite book| last=McCreery| first=Christopher| author-link=Christopher McCreery| title=The Canadian Honours System| page=98| publisher=Dundurn Press| location=Toronto| year=2005| isbn=9781550025545}}</ref> The order's statutes were amended in 1935 to include members of the [[Royal Air Force]] and, in 1969, the definition of honorary recipients was expanded to include members of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] that are not realms.

The order has always been open to women, [[Florence Nightingale]] being the first woman to receive the honour, in 1907. Several individuals have refused admission into the Order of Merit, including [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[A. E. Housman]], and [[George Bernard Shaw]]. [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]], remains the youngest person ever inducted into the Order, having been admitted by Queen [[Elizabeth II]] in 1968, when he was 47 years old.<ref name=Jackson/>

[[Robin Eames]], Baron Eames represented the order at the [[coronation of Charles III and Camilla]] on 6 May 2023.<ref>{{cite web| title=Coronation order of service in full| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65503950| date=6 May 2023| publisher=BBC News| access-date=6 May 2023}}</ref>