These numbers to be exclusive of the Royal family, distinguished foreigners and foreign officers. In addition the power was reserved of increasing the number on special occasions. Statute No. 16 provided that on the occasion of investiture each individual of the 1st or 2nd class should first be knighted if he were not previously a knight. By a new statute dated 1850, July 11, the membership was increased as follows (in order to admit officers of the commissariat and medical branches of the army and navy, and those of the East India Company into the military divisions of the 2nd and 3rd classes): viz.: ordinary military members of the 2nd and 3rd classes increased from 627 to 660, thus increasing the total membership to 985. By new general statutes dated Windsor, 1859, Jan. 31 the membership was fixed as follows: Besides honorary members (foreigners), the number of these latter being unlimited. By the 4th of these statutes the Prince Consort was appointed Great Master and 1st or principal G.C.B. By supplementary statutes dated 1861, June 24, the membership was fixed as follows: 1st class G.C.B. military 50 .......... ... By supplementary statute dated 1877, June 19, the membership was fixed as follows: : By supplementary statute dated 1881, May 10, the membership By supplementary statute dated 1886, May 19, the membership was fixed as follows: By supplementary statute dated 1887, June 20, the membership was fixed as follows: By supplementary statute dated 1890, Nov. 26, the membership ド ...... ..... .......... By supplementary statute dated 1892, Mar. 29, the membership was fixed as follows: 1st class G.C.B. --: military 55 civil 27 total 82 238 ... By supplementary statute dated 1895, May 18, the membership was fixed as follows: By supplementary statute dated 1896, Apr. 10, the membership was fixed as follows: 1st class G.C.B. ...... military 55 705 civil 27 وو ... By supplementary statute dated 1897, June 19, it was provided that members admitted into the Order in commemoration of the Jubilee of the 60th year of Queen Victoria's reign should be additional members "and shall not now or hereafter be included within the number of the ordinary members" of each respective class, but to have rank and precedence in each respective class according to the dates of their respective appointments. By supplementary statute dated 1897, June 22, it was ordered that a general officer of the Royal Marines should be an additional G.C.B. military. By supplementary statute dated 1897, June 22, H.R.H. the prince of Wales was appointed Great Master of the Order. By supplementary statute dated 1900, July 21, it was ordered that members admitted into the Order in connexion with the war in South Africa shall be additional members within the respective classes with rank and precedence according to the dates of their respective appointments. By supplementary statute dated 1901, Feb. 26, H.R.H. Arthur William Patrick Albert, duke of Connaught, was appointed Great Master of the Order. By supplementary statute dated 1901, July 17, the membership was fixed as follows: By supplementary statute dated 1902, Apr. 26, it was ordained that members admitted into the civil division of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes of the Order in commemoration of the coronation of king Edward VII. should be additional and should not now or hereafter be included in the number of the ordinary members of each class, but have rank and precedence according to the dates of their respective appointments. The enormous extension in the numbers of the Order, which has been sketched in the above brief resumé of the statutes has of necessity gone hand in hand with similar extending changes in the matter of qualification of membership. The qualification for a G.C.B. (military) at the present moment is the actual holding of a commission in the army of, or above, the rank of Major General; or in the navy of, or above, the rank of Rear Admiral. For a G.C.B. (civil) it is the performance of such personal services to the Crown or of such public duties as shall merit the Royal favour. For a K.C.B. (military) the qualification consists in the actual holding of a commission in the army, or marines, or Indian military forces of, or above, the rank of Colonel, and in the navy of, or above, the rank of Captain, or Inspector of Machinery, or Paymaster-inchief, or a commission of equivalent or higher rank in the medical service of the army or navy, or in the departments of the army or Indian military forces, distinguished service in the presence of the enemy, or efficient service as Flag Officer or General Officer, or meritorious service in actual war in providing for the wants of the army or navy, or in the care of sick and wounded. For a K.C.B. (civil) the qualifications are the same as for a G.C.B. (civil), or the performance of such lengthened service in the command of a regiment of auxiliary forces, or of a brigade of Naval artillery volunteers, or as an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve, or *This statute fixes the total numbers at 1,338. But this is surely an error, as by the Statute of 1897 June 22, the 1st Class G.C.B. had been increased by one, thus making it 83, not 82, and the total membership 1,339, not 1,338. such as shall have contributed in a marked degree to the efficiency of such regiment, brigade or reserve; or exceptional service to the Crown in connexion with the Department of the Secretary of State for War otherwise than on active service in the field. The present state of membership of the order is as follows: 1st class Knights Grand Cross: 55 (?56) military and 27 civil (exclusive of the sovereign and princes of the blood). 2nd class Knights Commanders: 145 military and 108 civil (exclusive of foreign officers who may be admitted as honorary Knights Commanders. 3rd class Companions: military 705; civil 298. In accordance with this sub-division of the first two classes the following list of Knights of the Bath is arranged as follows: (1) Knights of the Bath from the earliest times to Charles II., and Knights Companions of the Bath from 1725 to 1815. (2) Knights Grand Cross (military) from 1815 to the present time. (3) Knights Grand Cross (civil) from 1815 to the present time. (4) Knights Commanders (military) from 1815 to the present time. (5) Knights Commanders (civil) from 1847 (when they were first instituted) to the present time. With regard to installation it may be noted that the arrangement of the 36 stalls in Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey remained as prescribed in the statutes of George I. until 1812, when, under the Regent, they were re-arranged and extended. The drastic re-modelling of the Order in 1815, and the enormous increase in the number of knights rendered installation impossible, and with it all the archaic ceremonies of bathing and vigils. They accordingly disappear from at least the statutes of May, 1847. The process of investiture at the present moment consists only in (1) knighting in case the knight elect is not already a knight; (2) putting on the insignia. |