Royal Victorian Order - Eligibility and Appointment

Eligibility and Appointment

Membership in the Royal Victorian Order is conferred by the reigning monarch without ministerial advice on those who have performed personal service for the sovereign, any member of his or her family, or any of his or her viceroys. All living citizens of any of the Commonwealth realms, including women since 1936, are eligible for any of the five levels of the order, save for Canadians: As admission to the top two levels of the organization provide for an honorary prefix, Canadians are not normally appointed to these levels as long as the monarch's Canadian ministry adheres to the Nickle Resolution of 1919. The appointment of Canadians to the order resumed in 1972 and eligibility has been extended to those who render services to the monarch's representatives in the country. Those appointed to the order become members of the Royal Victorian Order Association of Canada. It was reported in 2008 that some in the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall wished to eliminate the Royal Victorian Order from the Canadian honours system and sometimes contested when a Canadian was appointed; however, no formal changes were ever planned. In Canada, the order has come to be colloquially dubbed as the "Royal Visit Order", as the majority of appointments are made by the sovereign during her tours of the country. Similarly, foreign members will generally be admitted as honorary members of the Royal Victorian Order when the Queen is making a state visit to the individual's country or a head of state is paying a state visit to one of the Queen's realms.

Persons have been removed from the order at the monarch's command. Anthony Blunt, a former surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, was in 1979 stripped of his knighthood, after it was revealed that he had been a spy. Also, William Pottinger, a senior civil servant, in 1975 lost his membership in both the Order of the Bath and the Royal Victorian Order when he was jailed for corruptly receiving gifts from the architect John Poulson.