Freedom of the City of London

The Freedom of the City of London is a recognition awarded to people who have achieved success, recognition or celebrity in their chosen field. Honorary Freedom of the City of London is a recognition of lifetime achievement or high international standing, and is much rarer than the broader Freedom of the City.

Whilst undoubtedly a privilege, strict instructions are given that the Freedom of the City of London should not be presented to others as being an honour or award. The Freedom of the City of London can be gained through membership of a livery company or by direct application supported by a suitably qualified proposer and seconder. After approval by the Court of Aldermen, Freemen are admitted by the Clerk to the Chamberlain of the City of London during a ceremony at Guildhall. A certificate is presented to the recipient.

There is a long-standing tradition of the City admitting women to the Freedom. Although they are nowadays usually called Freemen as well, the historically correct term is Free Sisters.

Freedom of the City of London is a pre-requisite for standing for election to the Common Council[1] and Court of Aldermen[2] of the City of London, and therefore also required by the Sheriffs and Lord Mayor of the City, as they must first become aldermen.

List of Freemen

The mixed list below contains just some of the names of people who have received the Freedom or Honorary Freedom over the years. Dates of awards are shown in brackets.

Royal Family members

• HRH Duke of Cambridge (4 November 1857)
• HRH Duke of Clarence and Avondale (29 June 1885)
• HRH Duke of York (28 October 1919)
• Admiral of the Fleet Rt Hon Lord Mountbatten of Burma (1946)[3]
• HRH Princess Elizabeth (1947)[4]
• HRH Duke of Edinburgh (1948)[5]
• HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1953)[6]
• HRH Prince of Wales (1971)[7]
• HRH Princess Royal (February 1976)[8]
• Diana, Princess of Wales[9] (22 July 1987)[10]
• HRH Earl of Wessex (2011)

Prime ministers of the United Kingdom

• Rt Hon Winston Churchill (30 June 1943)[11]
• Rt Hon Clement Attlee (26 November 1953)[12][13]
• Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher (26 May 1989)[14]
• Rt Hon Benjamin Disraeli (3 March 1878)[15]
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (3 August 1878)[15]
• Rt Hon David Lloyd George (27 April 1917)[16]
• Rt Hon William Pitt the Elder (received the first honorary Freedom in 1757)
• Rt Hon William Pitt the Younger
• Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington (1815)

Victoria Cross and George Cross recipients

• Flight lieutenant William Reid VC
• Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey VC (5 May 2016)[17]

Foreign royalty

• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (2000)[18]
• Otto von Habsburg (11 July 2007)[19]
• King Kigeli V of Rwanda (28 June 2016)[20]

Presidents of the United States of America

• Theodore Roosevelt (31 May 1910)[21][22]
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Dwight D. Eisenhower (12 June 1945)[23]
• Ulysses S. Grant (15 June 1877)[24]
• Woodrow Wilson (28 December 1918)[25]

International leaders

• Nelson Mandela (10 July 1996)[26]
• Rt Hon Sir Robert Borden (29 July 1915)[27]
• Rt Hon Louis Botha (16 April 1907)[28]
• Rt Hon Lord Bennett (4 November 1930)[29]
• Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia (March 1999)[30]
• Helmut Kohl (18 February 1998, "as the first European leader")[31]
• Lee Hsien Loong (28 March 2014)[32]
• Lee Kuan Yew (15 July 1982)[33]
• Rt Hon Sir Wilfrid Laurier (16 April 1907)
• Rt Hon Lester B. Pearson (1967)[34]
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Field Marshal Rt Hon Jan Smuts (1 May 1917)[35]
• Rt Hon V. S. Srinivasa Sastri (1921)
• Giuseppe Garibaldi
• Alan Greenspan (December 2005)
• Marjorie Jackson-Nelson (24 June 2005)[36]
• Salar Jung I

Entrepreneurs and academics

• Bill Gates
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee (24 September 2014)
• Jimmy Choo (14 November 2006)[37]
• George Helon, JP (3 March 2016[38][39] and presented on 12 September 2016)
• Stephen Jolly
• Christopher Moran (3 April 2017; owner of Crosby Hall, London and Chairman of Co-operation Ireland)[40]
• George Peabody (10 July 1862, in recognition of his financial contribution to London's poor)[41]
• Omiros D. Sarikas (Worshipful Company of International Bankers, Unicorn financier, investment banker and manager, private equity entrepreneur)
• Mark Watson-Gandy (1995)
• Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet
• Guy Moreton (Founder and CEO of MorePeople)

Archbishops of Canterbury, York and London

• Rt Hon Robert Runcie (2 January 1981)[42]
• Rt Hon Rowan Williams

Religious leaders

• Cardinal Vincent Nichols (7 September 2011)[43]
• Cardinal Renato Martino (6 May 2013)[44]
• Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
• William Booth (26 October 1906)[45][46]
• Arnold Brown (General of The Salvation Army)
• Robin Dunster (13 September 2007)[47]

Diplomats

• Ľubomír Rehák (2020)[48]
• Sylvie Bermann (26 July 2017)
• Alexander Downer, Sr. (1965)
• Ferdinand de Lesseps
• Daniel Mulhall (17 July 2017)[49]
• Arkady Rzegocki, Polish Ambassador (26 February 2020)[50]

Entertainment and the arts

• Raymond Baxter (1978)
• Sir Michael Caine (8 March 2013)[51][52]
• Joan Collins (18 September 2014)
• Justin Connolly (13 January 1989)
• Dame Judi Dench[9]
• Plácido Domingo (16 April 2013)[53]
• Mark Oliver Everett (July 2019)[54]
• Colin Firth (8 March 2012)
• Morgan Freeman (12 November 2014)[55]
• Stephen Fry[9]
• Bob Geldof (16 September 2013)[56]
• Ron Goodwin
• Paul Humphreys (1996)
• Teriy Keys (18 September 2014)
• Damian Lewis (20 March 2013)[57]
• Annie Lennox[9]
• Dame Vera Lynn (1978)
• Ian McKellen (30 October 2014)[58]
• Luciano Pavarotti (12 November 2005)[59]
• J. K. Rowling (8 May 2012)[60]
• Eddie Redmayne[61]
• Audrey Russell, broadcaster[62]
• Stephen Sondheim (2018)[63]
• Smurfie Syco
• Eric Sykes
• Barbara Windsor[64]
• Henry Winkler (9 January 2014)[65]

Historically notable Britons

• Rt Hon Sir George Arthur
• Captain Sir Tom Moore[66] (12 May 2020)
• Robert Baden-Powell
• Sir George Williams (June 1894)[67]
• Admiral of the Fleet Rt Hon Lord Beatty (16 June 1919)[68]
• Rt Hon John Bercow (4 July 2016)
• Sir Edward Berry
• Sir James Brooke (1847)
• Angela Burdett-Coutts (18 July 1872). She was the first woman to receive the honorary Freedom.
• Rt Hon Sir Austen Chamberlain (25 March 1926)[69]
• Rt Hon Sir Alexander Cockburn (9 March 1876)[70]
• Randall Davidson (1928)
• Rt Hon Lord Grey (23 January 1912)[71]
• Edward Jenner
• Digby Jones
• Field Marshal Rt Hon Lord Kitchener (4 November 1898)[72]
• Rt Hon William Lidderdale (1891)
• Sir Francis Leopold McClintock (May 1860)
• Rt Hon Lord Milner (23 July 1901)[73]
• Florence Nightingale (16 August 1908). She was the second woman to receive the honorary Freedom.
• James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
• John Francis Scott (16 Oct 1796 – 16 Dec 1854) (1823) Son of Warrant Officer John Scott R.N., Purser, secretary and close friend to Admiral Nelson, who was killed on 21 Oct 1805 whilst standing next to Nelson on the deck of HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar[74]
• Henry Morton Stanley (13 January 1887)
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
• Rt Hon Bernard Weatherill (1949)
• William Fenwick Williams
• Field Marshal Rt Hon Viscount Wolseley

Other notable recipients

• Nikos Papadellis (8 May 2019)
• David John Harmer (10 May 2002)
• Prince David Bagration of Mukhrani, Head of the Royal House of Georgia.
• Peter Ackroyd (15 December 2006)[75]
• Lloyd Searson (27 September 2017)
• Fredrick Smallbone (31 October 2017)
• Gerard Francis Claude Basset OBE (1 September 2016)
• Noel Byrne (20 December 2017) "A dedicated servant to the City and its people"
• Bartholomew Broadbent (17 January 1985)
• Roy Chadwick (1943)
• Rt Hon Joseph Chamberlain (13 February 1902)[76]
• Datu Dr Cheong Ming Lam (3 Oct 2009)
• Imran Ahmed Chowdhury (2013)
• Shaw Clifton (13 September 2007)[47]
• Alastair Cook[9]
• Frederick Cook (15 October 1909)[77]
• Tom Cox (April 2017)
• Crista Cullen (23 August 2013)[78]
• Nigel Cumberland (29 June 2016)[79][80][81]
• Brian Dear (3 October 2001 for charity work)[82]
• Xohan Duran (27 April 2016)
• Massimo Ellul (26 September 2005)
• Liam Hackett (firefighter) (15 September 2010)[83][84]
• Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (16 June 1919)[68]
• Julia Houghton (13 November 2008)
• Lasse Lehtinen (21 September 2007)[85]
• Charles Lindbergh
• PC Trevor Lock (May 1980 for heroism during the Iranian Embassy Siege)
• Frank Marshall, Baron Marshall of Leeds
• Ed Mirvish
• Angelo Musa, President of Real Academia Sancti Ambrosii Martyris (19 April 2016)[86]
• Rt Hon Lord Napier of Magdala
• Dr. Zenobia Nadirshaw (16 November 2017) A practising psychologist for 40 years, she has also served as Governor of London Metropolitan University, as an advisor to the Minister of Health and as Trustee of three charitable organisations.
• Ari Norman (6 November 1992) for services to the British silver industry[87]
• Chris Pavlou
• Frederick Penny, 1st Viscount Marchwood
• Sir Thomas Phillips (voted 26 February 1840, admitted on 7 April 1840)[88][89]
• John-Paul Preston (3 January 2018)
• Sir John Ross (March 1834)
• Simone Lakmaker (1982)
• Leonard Alexander Thirkettle (Chief Petty Officer Instructor, Sea Cadet Corps - 2006)
• Robin Tilbrook (27 September 2011)[90]
• Keiron J. Trebilcoe (22 January 2015)
• John E. Bevan (Designer) (15 June 2015)
• David Weir (3 December 2012)[91]
• General Sir James Willcocks (11 July 1901). Freedom of the City of London with sword of honour.[92]
• Bob Winter (10 September 2007)[93]
• Adrian Yeandle (8 December 2017)
• Henry Roberts
• Dwayne Fields[94]
• Julian Lewis
• James Robertson (Distiller) (19 June 2020)
• David Taylor (13th January 2021)

Honorary Freedom

The granting of the Honorary Freedom of the City of London (or Freedom Honoris Causa) is extremely rare and generally awarded today only to royalty, heads of state, or figures of genuine global standing. It is the greatest honour that is in the power of the City of London to bestow, and usually takes place in Guildhall in the presence of the Common Council and the lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, along with invited guests.

The most recent recipient, after a gap of some eleven years, was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with the ceremony taking place at Mansion House in 2013. In 1996 Nelson Mandela, as President of South Africa, received the same honour. The presentation on such occasions is made by the Chamberlain of London, and is often followed by a banquet at Guildhall or Mansion House. Historically, the first personage to be so honoured was William Pitt the Elder in 1757. However, there are also records of the presentation of such in May 1698 to Philemon Philip Carter, son of Nathaniel Carter (goldsmiths) in the "Freedom of the City Admission Papers" 1681-1930. For many years it was the custom to present the Freedom in specially commissioned and unique gold or silver caskets, the design of which was inspired by the background and the achievements of the individual to which it was presented. More normal today would be to present the honour in the form of a scroll in an inscribed box.

References

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43. https://rcdow.org.uk/cardinal/news/freedom-of-the-city-of-london/
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John Scott England Freedom of the City Admission Papers

Further reading

• London's Roll of Fame: Being Complimentary Notes and Addresses from the City of London, on Presentation of the Honorary Freedom of that City, and on Other Occasions, to Royal Personages, Statesmen etc. The City of London Corporation, Benjamin Scott (ed.), 1884