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In the past 50-100 years, has a British monarch knighted anyone of self-professed Catholic persuation?

This question is about English Church influence on English establishment. Has anyone of the Catholic religion been knighted?

Context note: I asked this question around the time of minor controversy caused by Markle's conversion. While it was clear that the British society had become welcoming of many religions and creeds, it remained unclear how the relationship to the royals' family had changed with respect to acceptance of Catholics to its inner circle.

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    This seems a very odd question. Catholic emancipation began in 1766, following the death of the last Jacobite claimant to the throne. There are not only catholic knights, but plenty of members of the peerage, and at least one duke, namely the Duke of Norfolk.
    – WS2
    Mar 9, 2018 at 23:03
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    @grovkin The article about the Catholic composer getting knighted is from the "Catholic Herald." It's like how an article from a college newspaper about an alum would mention that they're an alum.
    – cpast
    Mar 10, 2018 at 2:11
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    @grovkin I don't agree. I well remember when John F.Kennedy was running for the presidency, how many thought a Roman Catholic would never hold the office, and what a big moment for Catholics when he did. Remember that America has never had a Jewish president, nor a female president - ground that Britain broke long ago. Also remember that Gt Britain's was effectively a country founded by protestantism in the late-seventeenth century. It was a crucial defining element of the national identity
    – WS2
    Mar 10, 2018 at 9:54
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    Well Knighthood is not dependent on the religious faith of a person. Stephen Hawking (who calls himself an atheist) was approached for Knighthood in 1990's but he rejected the Knighthood because of U.K.'s science funding problems. Link - independent.co.uk/news/people/…
    – user17709
    Mar 11, 2018 at 18:44
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    @grovkin If you had mentioned Markle's conversion as the context for your question, I would have understood where you were coming from. Without knowing what I would consider an obscure piece of royal trivia, I did think it a somewhat random question. To be perfectly fair though, Tony Blair was flirting with Catholicism when he was a serving Prime Minister, and that did raise a few eyebrows.
    – richardb
    Mar 12, 2018 at 18:15

2 Answers 2

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Has any Catholic been knighted by GB in recent history?

Yes.

For example Catholic composer James MacMillan knighted, 2015.

Also atheists, Moslems, Jews, Hindus etc, the honour is not reserved for people of any specific faith.

a headline about a Catholic geting knighted merited mentioning that he is, in fact, a Catholic

That may be because I found him by searching for something like "Catholic Knighthood" - it was likely that the first relevant headline would include my search terms.

Although he is a well-known Catholic, noted for its influence in his music, you have to search hard to find anyone else who considers Macmillan's Catholicism worth remarking on in the context of a knighthood:

  • UK Gov: The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2015

    Dr. James Loy Macmillan CBE. Dr. Macmillan is a composer and conductor of international renown. He has retained his distinctiveness as a composer inspired by religious faith and he is also active as a working parish church musician in education and community work. His music was the focus of the London Symphony Orchestra’s 2009/10 Artist Portrait season, where his violin concerto was premiered alongside performances of his trumpet concerto Epiclesis and an education project Into the Ferment. He has served as Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and remains Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie.

  • BBC Scotland: Scots recognised in Queen's Birthday Honours

    Scots from all walks of life have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. They include composer James MacMillan, who is to be knighted

  • Music Newsmedium: Classical musicians recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015

    James MacMillan, Karl Jenkins and Simon Halsey are among the classical musicians to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for 2015. MacMillan, who was made a CBE in 2004, has received a knighthood for services to music. The composer, conductor and festival director considers his Scottish roots to be of great importance; the first Cumnock Tryst festival took place in his Ayrshire home town last year, and his works bear the influence of Gaelic folk music.

  • Scottish Christians: James MacMillan leads knighted Scots

    Composer James MacMillan has said he is “totally delighted” at being knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. The 55-year-old has been awarded the honour for services to music. Dr MacMillan’s music is widely performed around the world by performers ranging from top international orchestras to local church and community choirs. One of his compositions was a new choral piece which was sung when Pope Benedict XVI conducted mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow in 2010. ... [no explicit mention of Catholicism]

It seems that regional or niche media tend to mention that the subject is "one of us", even when it would otherwise be unremarkable. He's not the first musician to have been knighted, nor the first scot.

This actually makes it harder to answer the original question. You can't tell if no blue-eyed left-handers are allowed to be knighted - because those factors are almost never reported. More likely they are not reported because thay are not relevant or significant (in this context) than because there is an anti-blue-eyed-left-hander bias or rule in the UK establishment.

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While I was thinking about RegGrittyBrick's excellent answer to this question, I realized that the composer he mentioned had a name starting with "Mac". I began to suspect that most names starting with "Mac" or "Mc" indicate that they were Catholic and that this indicated that MacMillan was Catholic without mentioning it directly. After a little googling, this suspicion was proven wrong. This, as is turned out, was a common misunderstanding.

But the thinking about this name got me to recall another famous composer whose name started with "Mc", who is probably one of the most famous composers of the 20th century, who was baptized Catholic, and who was knighted -- Sir Paul McCartney (of the Beatles).

This kind of made me think that the question may have been a bit out there. Given the current politics surrounding Markle baptism, it's at least a little apropo. I'll leave it open, but with this answer attached.

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    Mac and Mc are both part of a Celtic naming pattern meaning "son of", and are fairly common across Scotland and Ireland (both North and the Republic). While some families in those regions are Catholic, some are really, really not.
    – origimbo
    Mar 11, 2018 at 16:06
  • @origimbo, I got that it was a common misunderstanding from the googling (as the answer already mentions). Didn't know it meant "son of". Interesting!
    – grovkin
    Mar 11, 2018 at 16:14
  • Within the Commonwealth, I'm not even sure I'd go as far as calling it common, although things are complicated by the UK viewpoint that religion is a private matter people generally won't discuss. I'd put it on the same level as assuming anyone with the name Singh must be Sikh.
    – origimbo
    Mar 11, 2018 at 18:07
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    The assumption that someone with the name Singh is Sikh is quite reliable as that is a name normally adopted in connection with affirmation of a religious identity. The historical state religion of Scotland is Presbyterian, and lots of Scots are Mac, so this is almost an anti-correlation based upon the fact that many Irish who also often have Mac in a name are Catholic.
    – ohwilleke ♦
    Mar 13, 2018 at 16:26

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