The Right Honourable

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The Right Honourable (abbreviated "The Rt Hon." or "The Right Hon.") is an honorific prefix which belongs to certain classes of people in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms.

Entitlement

People entitled to the prefix in a personal capacity are:

• Members of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland Privy Councils (which includes certain individuals in some Commonwealth realms);
• Barons, viscounts and earls (marquesses are The Most Honourable and dukes are The Most Noble or His Grace, and, if Privy Counsellors, retain these higher styles); and
• The holders of certain offices in Canada (e.g. the Governor-General, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Canada).

In order to differentiate peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not, sometimes the suffix PC is added to the title.

In addition some people are entitled to the prefix in an official capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, but not the name of the person:

• The Lord Mayors of London, Dublin, Cardiff, Belfast, York and Bristol; and of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart; and
• The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

All other Lord Mayors and Lord Provosts are The Right Worshipful

The prefix is also added to the name of various corporate entities, e.g.:

• The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled;
• The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; etc.

Use of the Honorific

The honorific is normally only used on the front of envelopes and other written documents: e.g. The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP is otherwise referred to simply as "Mr Blair".

In the House of Commons, members refer to each other as "the honourable member for ..." or "the right honourable member for ..." depending or not upon whether they are Privy Counsellors. However the title "the honourable member" is only a Parliamentary term and should not be used outside the House.

Outside the United Kingdom

Generally within the Commonwealth, ministers and judges are The Honourable unless they are appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, in which case they are The Right Honourable. Such persons generally include Prime Ministers and judges of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth prime ministers.

Ireland

Outside the United Kingdom, the role of the those possessing the honorific has changed. The Irish Privy Council was de facto abolished with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922; nevertheless the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who was ex-officio a member of the Irish Privy Council, retains the usage of the honorific. The remaining members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland are entitled to the title The Right Honourable.

Canada

In Canada, members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada receive the honorific The Honourable (in French, Honorable), with only the occupants of the most senior public offices being made The Right Honourable (Très honorable), as they used to be appointed to the British Privy Council.

Although these appointments have ceased, the following public servants are awarded the title The Right Honourable for life:

• the Governor General of Canada
• the Prime Minister of Canada
• the Chief Justice of Canada.

Governors General also use the style His/Her Excellency during their term of office.

Several prominent Canadians (mostly politicians), other than those holding the aforementioned positions, have become members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus entitled to use the title Right Honourable either because of their services in Britain such as serving as envoys to London or as members of the Imperial War Cabinet or due to their prominence in the Canadian Cabinet. These include:

• Sir John A. Macdonald (1879)1
• Sir John Rose (1886)
• Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (1894)1
• Sir Samuel Henry Strong (1897)4
• Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1897)1
• Sir Richard John Cartwright (1902)
• Sir Henri Elzéar Taschereau (1904)4
• Sir Charles Tupper (1907)1
• Sir Charles Fitzpatrick (1908)4
• Sir Robert Laird Borden (1912)1
• Sir George Eulas Foster (1916)
• Sir Louis Henry Davies (1919)4
• Lyman Poore Duff (1919)6
• Arthur Lewis Sifton (1920)
• Arthur Meighen (1920)1
• Charles Doherty (1920)
• Sir William Thomas White (1920)
• William Lyon Mackenzie King (1922)1
• William Stevens Fielding (1923)
• Francis Alexander Anglin (1925)4
• Sir William Mulock (1925)
• George Perry Graham (1925)
• R.B. Bennett (1930)1
• Sir George Halsey Perley (1931)
• Ernest Lapointe (1937)
• Vincent Massey (1941)3
• Raoul Dandurand (1941)
• Louis St. Laurent (1946)2
• James Lorimer Ilsley (1946)
• Clarence Decatur Howe (1946)
• Ian Alistair Mackenzie (1947)
• James Garfield Gardiner (1947)
• Thibaudeau Rinfret (1947)4
• John George Diefenbaker (1957)1
• Georges-Philéas Vanier (1963)5
• Lester Bowles Pearson (1963)1

1 - As Prime Minister.

2 - Tupper was appointed when he was no longer Prime Minister and St. Laurent was appointed when he was a cabinet minister under Mackenzie King.

3 - Massey became Governor General over a decade later. He was made "Right Honourable" while serving as Canada's High Commissioner to Britain.

4 - As Chief Justice of Canada

5 - As Governor General of Canada.

6 - Duff did not become Chief Justice until 1933.

Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of Lester Pearson. Since then, the title may only be granted for life by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of the offices that would entitle them to it. It has been granted to the following individuals: