Victoria's gentlemen of honour: symbols, rituals, and conventions of colonial honours

Abstract

This thesis is a pilot-study into the feasibility of a larger-scale and comparative imperial study of nineteenth-century colonial honours. The discussion focuses upon the nineteenth-century emergence, reproduction, evolution, and expansion of colonial honours as a formalised system of social honour and patronage for gentlemanly colonists, with reference to the colony of New Zealand, within an Australasian context. The primary aim is to reveal some of the patronage conventions that governed the pursuit and attainment of honours. The thesis explores both the institutional framework and individual experiences. Part one is an analysis of the imperial elite debate about possible conventions, and the subsequent emergence and reproduction of administrative processes, rituals, conventions, and symbolic rules governing the operation of the colonial honours system. Part two is an exploration of colonial experiences of this system through three separate case studies: (1) observations of the pursuit of honours; (2) a solicitation of an honour; and, (3) the receipt of a knighthood.