page_title: Accolade
section_title: United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Accolade / Accolade in the 21st century / United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: THE BRITISH ARMY IN ITALY 1944. King George VI knights General Sir Oliver Leese in the field.
context_page_description: The accolade was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term accolade was used much more generally to mean "praise" or "award" or "honour."
context_section_description: All newly created knights in the UK, that is Knights Bachelor, Knights Commanders and Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, Royal Victorian Order, Order of Saint Michael and Saint George and Order of the Bath, Knights Companions of the Order of the Thistle and the Order of the Garter are dubbed on both shoulders with a sword by the monarch or the prince delegated by her.
  Clergy receiving a knighthood are not dubbed. The use of a sword in this kind of a ceremony is believed to be inappropriate.
caption: King George VI knights General Oliver Leese in the field, 1944.
exif: {}