Honours and Commemorations
Beecham was knighted in 1916 and succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father later that year. In 1938 the President of France, Albert Lebrun, invested him with the Légion d'honneur. In 1955, Beecham was presented with the Order of the White Rose of Finland. He was a Commendatore of the Order of the Crown of Italy and was made a Companion of Honour in the 1957 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was an honorary Doctor of Music of the universities of Oxford, London, Manchester and Montreal.
Beecham, by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin, is a play celebrating the conductor and drawing on a large number of Beecham stories for its material. Its first production, in 1979, starred Timothy West in the title role. It was later adapted for television, starring West, with members of the Hallé Orchestra taking part in the action and playing pieces associated with Beecham.
In 1980 the Royal Mail put Beecham's image on the 13½p postage stamp in a series portraying British conductors; the other three in the series depicted Wood, Sargent and Barbirolli. The Sir Thomas Beecham Society preserves Beecham's legacy through its website and release of historic recordings.
A Greater London Council blue plaque was unveiled in 1985 at Beecham's home, 31 Grove End Road in St John's Wood.
In 2012, Beecham was voted into the inaugural Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Beecham
Famous quotes containing the word honours:
“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)