page_title: Order of the Bath
section_title: Great Master
hierarchical_section_title: Order of the Bath / Composition / Great Master
caption_attribution_description: Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, wearing the robes of a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
context_page_description: The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as ’Knights of the Bath’. George I "erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order". He did not revive the Order of the Bath, since it had never previously existed as an Order, in the sense of a body of knights who were governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred.
  The Order consists of the Sovereign, the Great Master and three Classes of members:
  Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross
  Knight Commander or Dame Commander
  Companion
  Members belong to either the Civil or the Military Division. Prior to 1815, the order had only a single class, Knight Companion, which no longer exists. Recipients of the Order are now usually senior military officers or senior civil servants. Commonwealth citizens who are not subjects of the Queen and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members.
context_section_description: The next-most senior member of the Order is the Great Master, of which there have been nine:
  1725–1749: John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu
  1749–1767: (Vacant)
  1767–1827: Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
  1827–1830: Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (later King William IV)
  1830–1837: (Vacant)
  1837–1843: Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex
  1843–1861: Albert, Prince Consort
  1861–1897: (Vacant)
  1897–1901: Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII)
  1901–1942: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
  1942–1974: Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
  1974–present: Charles, Prince of Wales.
  Originally a Prince of the Blood Royal, as the Principal Knight Companion, ranked next after the sovereign. This position was joined to that of the Great Master in the statutes of 1847. The Great Master and Principal Knight is now either a descendant of George I or "some other exalted personage"; the holder of the office has custody of the seal of the order and is responsible for enforcing the statutes.
caption: Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, Great Master 1843–1861. During the nineteenth century, Knights Grand Cross wore their mantles over imitations of seventeenth-century dress. They now wear them over contemporary attire.
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