Knighthood Gallery

Ernest Rutherford, caricature

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). Caricature of the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, with an electron orbiting his head. Rutherford's early work on radioactivity at McGill University in Canada led to his 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His most famous work took place in 1909 at the University of Manchester, England. The Geiger-Marsden experiment fired helium ions (alpha particles) at thin gold foil. The resulting scattering pattern led to the Rutherford model of the atom. From 1919 to his death, Rutherford directed the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He was knighted in 1914, and made Baron Rutherford of Nelson in 1931. He was buried in Westminster Abbey

© GARY BROWN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Ceremonies of knighthood

Knighthood ceremonies: a knight kneels to be dubbed with a sword 358, a squire attaches spurs to the knight's armour 359, a knight is dressed in armour by women 360, and a knight swears an oath to the Order on the Bible 361. From Marc Vulson de la Colombiere's Le Vrai Theatre d'Honneur et de chevalerie, 1648. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Robert von Spalart's Historical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages, Chez Collignon, Metz, 1810. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans

Makes you F(i)ume, doesn't it? by Bruce Bairnsfather

If only OUR National Poet would take Heligoland and refuse to leave it until it's ours! Caricature of George Robey (1869-1954), music hall entertainer and comedian, pictured refusing Heligoland. The cartoons comments on Robey's refusal of a knighthood at the end of the First World War (he was awarded the CBE and would accept a knighthood after the Second World War). The supreme war council at Paris decided that fortifications at Heligoland should be dismantled and that it could be restored to Britain who decided to refuse it due to the cost of maintaining the port. Date: 1919

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans