The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor (ISKB) was formed in 1908 in the United Kingdom and in 1912 received royal recognition, with Royal assent given by HM King George V for the Society to be called The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. [1] [2] It is a registered charity and seeks to uphold and advise on the dignity and rights of Knights Bachelor and knighthood. The Society was granted its first Royal Warrant by King George V, dated at Windsor on 21 April 1926. An additional Royal Warrant updating the first was granted by Queen Elizabeth II, dated at St James's Palace on 19 July 1973. A further Royal Warrant followed, which updated elements of the previous ones, and this was dated 4 December 1998. [3] The Society maintains a Register of all Knights Bachelor, continuing the lapsed Roll instituted by King Charles I, which was continued by the College of Arms up to the year 1902. The first new Volume was signed by Queen Elizabeth I and HRH Prince Philip, on 10 July 1968, at the dedication service of the Chapel of the Knights Bachelor. [4]
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From 1977 until her death in 2022, the society's patron was Queen Elizabeth II. [5] In May 2024, King Charles III became the new patron.
The society's charitable objectives include the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, support for hospitals, those afflicted by illness or disease and the maintenance of their chapel. [6]
In 1962, the society established its own chapel in the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London. In 2005, the chapel was moved to St Martin's Chapel in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London. [7] The wives and daughters of the society's members are allowed to wear a special Lady's Brooch that displays the heraldic badge of the society. [8]
