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Dear Nicholas,
I am sorry that I mislaid the small slip of paper with your address on it and
was therefore unable to write to you about last month’s OC. Dinner. I would very
much have liked to attend on this occasion but I had been “thrown” by one of
these small lethal buses which shoot off violently before passengers can take
their seats and I was within three days of admission to hospital for a hip
replacement operation, which seems in the event to have gone very well.
My time in hospital however was not without OC. interest for I noticed that the
man in the next bed was under the care of a surgeon with the hallowed name of
Mr. Sweetnam. Mr. Sweetnam I never met, but I discovered that he was the son of
Sir Rodney Sweetnam, perhaps the most distinguished of all 0.C.s of my own
generation. In the Sixth Form young Rodney had no doubt or hesitation about
dedicating himself to the profession of medicine. He rose to become President of
the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Orthopaedic Surgeon to The Queen.
On his retirement, in the New Year Honours 1992 The Queen appointed him a Knight
and awarded him The Royal Victorian Order with the rank of KCVO.
The Royal Victorian Order has the special character that it is The Queen’s
personal gift, awarded in recognition of services direct to Herself.
Ministers have no power to submit recommendations for awards in that Order. It
is therefore correspondingly rare. Yet no less than five members of the small
Sixth Form at Clayesmore in 1945 have received the Order.
John Brooke-Little actually got it twice. In July 1969 he received the MVO (IV)
(now renamed the LVO) in recognition of his services at the Investiture of HRH
The Prince of Wales. As Norroy and Ulster King of Arms he was promoted to CVO in
the New Year Honours 1984. He subsequently became Clarenceux King of Arms but
has since retired.
Another CVO was given at the Birthday 1990 to Alan Gilmour, a doctor who became
Director of the NSPCC.
Barry Denny received the MVO (IV) in February 1979 for services during The
Queen’s State Visit to Kuwait.
Finally I received my own LVO at the New Year 1986 for over eight years of
service as Head of Honours Section in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Every four years a Service of the Order is held in St. George ‘s Chapel, Windsor
and those who attend the Service are invited to a Reception, which includes The
Queen and most of the Royal Family, in the State Apartments of the Castle. It
adds to the pleasure to see other OC.s on these great occasions.
With best wishes,
Yours ever,
Adrian Turner (40-45)