In 1965, all four members of The Beatles received MBEs, or Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medals. The honor surprised them, but it outraged some members of the public. People were sharply divided on whether The Beatles deserved the award. Former MBE recipients didn’t know what to make of it, either. Some were so upset that they sent their MBEs back in disgust.
MBE recipients protested when The Beatles received them
When The Beatles received MBEs, people couldn’t believe the musicians got the honor. Papers and media outlets debated whether or not they deserved them, with many outlets covering the story with scorn. Many previous MBE recipients felt the same way. George Read, a member of the Coast Guard, wrote a letter to the palace.
“I am so disgusted with the Beatles being given this award that I am considering sending mine back,” he wrote, per the book The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz.
Others didn’t just threaten to return their MBEs. War hero Paul Pearson sent his back with a note stating that “its meaning seems to be worthless” now that The Beatles had one. Hector Dupois, a former member of Canada’s House of Commons, sent his back decrying the “superior authority’s wish to honor sorry fellows with whom I have no desire whatever to be associated.”
Despite all this public outcry, The Beatles still received MBEs.
The MBEs surprised The Beatles
The Beatles received MBEs to honor their cultural achievements, but they still found the honor unexpected.
“We thought getting the MBE was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We didn’t believe it,” John Lennon said, per The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “It was a part we didn’t want. We all met and agreed it was daft. What do you think, we all said. Let’s not. Then it all just seemed part of the game we’d agreed to play, like getting the Ivor Novello awards.”
Ultimately, the public outcry only made the band want to accept the MBEs.
“We’d nothing to lose, except that bit of you which said you didn’t believe in it,” he said. “We agreed in order to annoy even more the people who were annoyed, like John Gordon.”
John Lennon eventually returned his MBE
In 1969, Lennon followed in the footsteps of the protesters and returned his MBE. He wrote letters to the queen, the prime minister, and the Central Chancery of the Orders of the Knighthood, stating his political and personal reasons for returning the medal.
“Your Majesty,” he wrote (per Ultimate Classic Rock), “I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts. With love. John Lennon of Bag.”
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr chose to keep their MBEs.
