Appointments to the Order of the Garter

The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint Dame Mary Fagan to be a Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and the Viscount Brookeborough to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

The appointment of the Knights and Ladies of the Garter is in The Queen's gift (i.e. without Prime Ministerial advice). Appointments to the Order of the Garter are therefore in the same category as the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit and the Royal Victorian Order which are also in The Queen's gift. Today's announcement brings the number of Companions to twenty-two (out of a maximum of twenty-four).

Dame Mary Fagan, DCVO served as Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire between 1994 and 2014 and was also Chancellor of the University of Winchester from 2006 until 2014.

Alan Henry Brooke, 3rd Viscount Brookeborough has served as Personal Lord in Waiting to The Queen since 1997 and has been Lord Lieutenant of Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland since 2012. He served with HM Armed Forces between 1971 and 1994, with 17th/21st Lancers, the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Irish Regiment.

Find out more about the Order of the Garter.