The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable (abbreviated "
The Rt. Hon." or "
The Right Hon.") is an
honourific prefix which is traditionally applied to certain classes of people in the
United Kingdom, the
Commonwealth Realms, and elsewhere.
People entitled to the prefix in a personal capacity are:
* Members of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the
Privy Council of Northern Ireland**This includes all current and former members of the
Cabinet of the United Kingdom, a
committee of the Privy Council, with the exception of those who have resigned from the Privy Council (such as
Jonathan Aitken);
*
Barons,
viscounts and
earls (
marquesses are "
The Most Honourable" and
dukes are "
The Most Noble" or "His Grace", and, if Privy Councillors, retain these higher styles); and
* The holders of certain offices of state in some
Commonwealth realms (e.g. in Canada, the
Governor General,
Prime Minister and
Chief Justice).
In order to differentiate
peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not, sometimes the suffix
PC is added to the title.
In addition some people are entitled to the prefix in an official capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, but not the name of the person:
* The
Lords Mayor of
London,
Cardiff,
Belfast,
York and
Bristol; and of
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Perth,
Adelaide,
Brisbane and
Hobart; and
* The
Lords Provost of
Edinburgh and
Glasgow.
All other Lords Mayor are "
The Right Worshipful", other Lords Provost do not use an honorific.
The prefix is also added to the name of various corporate entities, e.g.:
* The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the
House of Lords);
* The Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses (now usually the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the
House of Commons); and
* The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (the
Board of Admiralty)
* The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations (the
Board of Trade)
See also the corporate use of "Most Honourable," as in "The Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council" (the
Privy Council).
The honorific is normally only used on the front of envelopes and other written documents: for example, The Right Honourable
Tony Blair, MP is otherwise referred to simply as "Mr Blair".
In the
House of Commons, members refer to each other as "the honourable member for ..." or "the
right honourable member for ..." depending upon whether or not they are Privy Councillors. However the title "the honourable member" is only a parliamentary term and is not used outside the House.
When a married woman holds this style, she uses her own given name in her style. So, when
Margaret Thatcher was made a Privy Counsellor, her formal style changed from "Mrs. Denis Thatcher" to "The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher".
Generally within the Commonwealth, ministers and judges are
The Honourable unless they are appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, in which case they are
The Right Honourable. Such persons generally include Prime Ministers and judges of the Court of Appeal of
New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth prime ministers.
Australia
In
Australia some Premiers of the Australian colonies in the 19th century were appointed members of the UK Privy Council and were thus entitled to be called
The Right Honourable. After Federation in
1901, the
Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the
High Court of Australia, the
Prime Minister and some other senior ministers held the title. There has never been an Australian Privy Council.
In
1972 Labor Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam declined appointment to the Privy Council, but the practice was resumed by
Malcolm Fraser in
1975. In
1983 Bob Hawke declined the appointment, and the appointment of Australians to the Privy Council was abolished shortly thereafter. The last Governor-General to be entitled to the style was
Sir Ninian Stephen. The last politician to be entitled to the style was
Ian Sinclair, who retired in
1998.
The only living Australians holding the title
The Right Honourable for life are:
*
Doug Anthony, former Deputy Prime Minister
*
Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor-General
*Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister
*Ian Sinclair, former Leader of the National Party and Speaker of the House of Representatives
*Sir Ninian Stephen, former Governor-General
*
Reginald Withers, former Senator, Minister, and Lord Mayor of Perth.
The Lord Mayors of
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Brisbane,
Perth,
Adelaide and
Hobart are styled
The Right Honourable, but the style (which has no connection with the Privy Council) attaches to the title of Lord Mayor, and not to their names, and is relinquished upon leaving office. Reginald Withers holds the title Right Honourable for life because he was a member of the Privy Council before he was elected Lord Mayor of Perth.
Canada
In Canada, members of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada receive the honorific
The Honourable, with only the occupants of the most senior public offices being made
The Right Honourable, as they used to be appointed to the British Privy Council.
L'Honorable and
le Très Honorable are used in
French by the federal government, but the
Office québécois de la langue française (the
Quebec government body setting standards for the French language) considers them improper loan expressions and advises the use of
Monsieur and
Madame (Mr. and Ms.) instead.
The following public servants are awarded the style
The Right Honourable for life:
*the
Governor General of Canada*the
Prime Minister of Canada*the
Chief Justice of Canada.
(Governors General also use the style
His/Her Excellency during their term of office.)
Several prominent Canadians (mostly politicians) have become members of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom and have thus been entitled to use the title Right Honourable, either because of their services in Britain (e.g. serving as envoys to London) or as members of the
Imperial War Cabinet, or due to their prominence in the
Canadian Cabinet. These include:
*Sir
John A. Macdonald (1879)
1*Sir
John Rose (1886)
*Sir
John Sparrow David Thompson (1894)
1*Sir
Samuel Henry Strong (1897)
4*Sir
Wilfrid Laurier (1897)
1*Sir
Richard John Cartwright (1902)
*Sir
Henri Elzéar Taschereau (1904)
4*Sir
Charles Tupper (1907)
1*Sir
Charles Fitzpatrick (1908)
4*Sir
Robert Laird Borden (1912)
1*Sir
George Eulas Foster (1916)
*Sir
Louis Henry Davies (1919)
4*Sir
Lyman Poore Duff (1919)
6*
Arthur Lewis Sifton (1920)
*
Arthur Meighen (1920)
1*
Charles Doherty (1920)
*Sir
William Thomas White (1920)
*
William Lyon Mackenzie King (1922)
1*
William Stevens Fielding (1923)
*
Francis Alexander Anglin (1925)
4*Sir
William Mulock (1925)
*
George Perry Graham (1925)
*
R.B. Bennett (1930)
1*Sir
George Halsey Perley (1931)
*
Ernest Lapointe (1937)
*
Vincent Massey (1941)
3*
Raoul Dandurand (1941)
*
Louis St. Laurent (1946)
2*
James Lorimer Ilsley (1946)
*
Clarence Decatur Howe (1946)
*
Ian Alistair Mackenzie (1947)
*
James Garfield Gardiner (1947)
*
Thibaudeau Rinfret (1947)
4*
John George Diefenbaker (1957)
1*
Georges-Philéas Vanier (1963)
5*
Lester Bowles Pearson (1963)
11 - As Prime Minister.
2 - Tupper was appointed when he was no longer Prime Minister and St. Laurent was appointed when he was a cabinet minister under Mackenzie King.
3 - Massey became Governor General over a decade later. He was made "Right Honourable" while serving as Canada's High Commissioner to London.
4 - As Chief Justice of Canada
5 - As Governor General of Canada.
6 - Duff did not become Chief Justice until 1933.
Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of Lester Pearson. Since then, the style may only be granted for life by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of the offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. It has been granted to the following individuals:
*Paul Joseph James Martin (1992)
*Martial Asselin (1992)
*Ellen Fairclough (1992)
*Jean-Luc Pépin (1992)
*Alvin Hamilton (1992)
*Don Mazankowski (1992)
*Jack Pickersgill (1992)
*Robert Stanfield (1992)
*Herb Gray (2002)Ireland
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland were entitled to be addressed as The Right Honourable until the Privy Council was abolished with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922; nevertheless the Lord Mayor of Dublin, like his counterparts in the United Kingdom, retained the usage of the honorific after this time as a result of a separate conferring of the title by law; in 2001 the honorific was removed as a consequence of local government law reform. The Lord Mayor of Cork has never been entitled to the title.
The remaining members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland are entitled to be styled The Right Honourable.New Zealand
In New Zealand, the Prime Minister and some other senior cabinet ministers have customarily been appointed to the British Privy Council and styled The Right Honourable. The current Prime Minister, Helen Clark has not recommended any new Privy Counsellors.
At present there are only two Privy Counsellors in the New Zealand Parliament: Helen Clark appointed in 1990 and Winston Peters appointed in 1996. Privy Counsellors recently retired include the former Speaker of the House, Jonathan Hunt and former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley (appointed upon becoming Prime Minister in 1997). Senior Judges are also often appointed as Privy Counsellors.*The Honourable
*The Most Honourable
*Excellency
*Style (manner of address)
*Use of courtesy titles and honorifics in professional writing*Current list of Canadian notables possessing some form of honorific (incl. Rt. Hon.)
*Members of the British Privy Council
