An MBE received by musician John Lennon was returned as he noted one of his songs was “slipping down the charts.”
The gradual decline of his chart position was merely a tertiary reason for returning the Sovereign award, given to him by Queen Elizabeth II. Lennon, along with The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, were made Members of the British Empire in 1965 for services to British industry. Starr was happy to receive the award and suggested all four of The Beatles were delighted with their “thrilling” accolade. He said: “I had no problem with it – none of us had any problems with it in the beginning. We all thought it was really thrilling.”
The award was seen as controversial at the time, and Lennon suggested The Beatles deserved their award more than those who had killed people through military service. While some suggested the “pop group” had trivialised the MBE, Lennon suggested songwriters were more deserving. He said: “They got them for killing people. We got ours for entertaining. I’d say we deserve ours more.”
Lennon added: “We were giggling like crazy because we had just smoked a joint in the loos of Buckingham Palace. We were so nervous.” Harrison suggested Lennon was lying about the joint, but then himself accidentally lied to the Queen. He recalled: “She said to me, ‘Have you been working hard recently?’ And I couldn’t think what we’ve been doing, so I said, ‘No, we’ve been having a holiday,’ when actually we’ve been recording.”
Lennon would later return his MBE in protest of Britain’s involvement in the Nigerian civil war. The conflict lasted from July 6, 1967 to January 15, 1970. Increased support from Britain meant Nigerian federal forces were successful in their final offensive against the Biafrans. Surrender papers were signed on January 14, and the secession of Biafra was renounced.
In protest of Britain’s involvement at the time, Lennon wrote a letter to the Queen. It reads: “Your Majesty,
“I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts.
“With love. John Lennon of Bag.” The letter was sent at the time when Lennon and Yoko Ono were performing a “bed-in” in protest of the Vietnam war, though the former Beatles member had time to protest the British-involved civil war.
Despite renouncing the MBE and even sending back the medal which sat on his Aunt Mimi’s mantelpiece in Bournemouth, Lennon’s MBE was not dropped. According to Gov.UK: “An individual may decide to renounce their honour voluntarily [but] would still hold the honour unless or until HM Queen annulled it.”
Lennon is not the only person to reject or return an MBE award. David Bowie, Paul Weller, and Brian Eno all rejected, refused, or returned the offered award, while Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, also rejected the honour.
