Toronto, July 14 (Inditop.com) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed the rare Order of Merit on former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
The Order of Merit is an elite group of 24 members who are nominated by the Queen for their distinguished accomplishments in the arts, learning, sciences and public service.
A new appointment to the Order takes place only after one of the 24 members of the elite group dies.
The Order of Merit was set up by King Edward VII in 1902 to honour those with exceptional accomplishments.
Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Graham Greene and Ted Hughes, former British prime minister Winston Churchill, India’s last viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Boy Scout Movement founder Robert Baden-Powell, and aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland are among those who were given this rare honour by the British monarch.
Former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer are among the few foreign figures nominated.
Chretien, who served as Canada’s prime minister from 1993 to 2003, is the third Canadian prime minister to be given the British honour. The others are William Lyon Mackenzie King and Lester Pearson.
Nelson Mandela is an honorary member of the Order of Merit.
The 75-year-old former Canadian prime minister, who has been feted for his 40 years of public life, will be formally given the Order at a ceremony in London later this year.
He will be given a medal and allowed to use O.M. (Order of Merit) after his surname.
Unlike other honours, the British monarch does not seek the advice of any government to bestow the Order of Merit on individuals.
All members of the Order meet the Queen in London once annually.
Recalling his meetings with the Queen, the former Canadian prime said: “She’s very good in French. She always started speaking
