List of knights grand cross of the Order of the British Empire

Below is a list of knights grand cross of the Order of the British Empire from the Order's creation in 1917 to the present day. The names and titles of recipients are given as at the time of their appointment or promotion to Knight Grand Cross. The date of the award, as given in the announcement The London Gazette, is included in brackets after the names.

1919

 * Anastasios Adossides (August 1919?)

1920

 * Division and date unknown
 * Abdullah (honorary)
 * Prince Zeid bin Hussein (honorary)
 * Ali of Hejaz (honorary)

1922

 * Civil Division
 * José Evaristo Uriburu y Tezanos Pinto (date unknown)

1927

 * Hereditary Prince of Korea (30 September 1927)
 * HH Commanding-General Sir Kaiser Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana

1930

 * Military Division
 * Admiral Sir Edward Bradford (1 January)
 * Civil Division
 * Antonio Chiaramonte Bordonaro (honorary) (25 March) (invested by Arthur Henderson)
 * Balbino Giuliano
 * Division and date unknown
 * Ras Kassa Darge (honorary)

1931

 * Gabriel Terra (1931) (on the occasion of the Prince of Wales' visit)

1932

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Robert Gibson (3 June)
 * Division and date unknown
 * The Crown Prince of Ethiopia (honorary)
 * Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia (honorary)

1934

 * Military Division
 * Admiral Sir Howard Kelly (1 January)
 * Civil Division
 * Sir Alan Anderson (4 June)
 * Sir John Reith (4 June)
 * Colonel Malik Sir Umar Hayat Khan (4 June)
 * Division and date unknown
 * Bahadur Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana (honorary)

1935

 * Military Division
 * General Sir Felix Ready (3 June)
 * Civil Division
 * Sir George Newman (3 June)
 * Edward Beatty (3 June)
 * Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola (3 June)
 * The Sultan of Johore (honorary) (3 June)
 * The Sultan of Zanzibar (honorary) (3 June)
 * Sir Stephen Killik (27 September)

1936

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Sidney Barton (1 January)
 * 1937: Archibald Rice Cameron, Frederic Dreyer, Sir Ernest Strohmenger, Kaiser Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana (honorary), Baron Emile-Ernest de Cartier de Marchienne (honorary), Maharaja, HH Mohan Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana of Nepal (honorary)
 * 1938: Sir Andrew Duncan, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (honorary [29 September]; removed 194?), The Earl of Onslow, Leger, (Marie-René) Alexis Saint-Leger (honorary)
 * 1939: Frank Edward Smith

1940s

 * 1941: Frederick Bowhill, Reginald Dorman-Smith, Thomas Gardiner, The Viscount Nuffield, Arthur Robinson, The Lord Rushcliffe, 1st Baron Wilson
 * 1942: Charles Little, 1st Baron Riverdale
 * 1943: Prince of Berar, Thomas Blamey, Henry Hallett Dale, Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, Percy Noble, William Platt, William Charles Wright
 * 1944: Cowasji Jehangir, 2nd Baronet, Allan Powell, 1st Baron Salter
 * 1945: Vijayaraji Khengarji Sawai Bahadur, Christopher Courtney, The Viscount Finlay, Ernest Gowers, 1st Baronet Lithgow, Maharana Shri Vijayasinhji Chhatrasinhji, Maharaja of Rajpipla, Alexandros Papagos (honorary; presented 3 August), Vasily Sokolovsky (honorary), Harold R. Stark (honorary), General Walter Bedell Smith (honorary), General Carl Spaatz (honorary)
 * 1946: 1st Baron Alness, Edward Appleton, Thomas Barlow, Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan Chhatari, Douglas Evill, Henry French, Alexander Hood, Maurice Holmes, Harold Howitt, Hubert Huddleston, 1st Baron Iliffe, John Kennedy, Arthur Power, Charles Kennedy-Purvis, Henry Peat, Thomas Williams Phillips, Hubert Rance, Bernard Rawlings, James Somerville, 1st Viscount Slim, 1st Baronet Thomson, Maharaja of Tripura, Clark Haynes Minor (honorary)
 * 1947: John Chancellor, William Currie, Geoffrey Layton, George Sansom, 3rd Baronet Sassoon, Winthrop W. Aldrich (honorary), Jean Monnet (honorary)
 * 1948: 4th Baronet Christison, Guy Garrod, Edward Mellanby, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, Reginald Leeper, John Waddington
 * 1949: Robert Howe, Wilson Jameson, Walter Moberly, Sir Brian Robertson, Bt., General Shanker Shamsher Jung Bahadur Rana (honorary)

1950s

 * 1950: Robert Burnett, Ralph Cochrane, 6th Earl of Ilchester, Donald Gainer, 1st Baron Silsoe, 1st Baronet Stewart of Strathgarry
 * 1951: Patrick Brind, 28th Earl of Crawford, Lord Porter, Neil Ritchie, Dirk Stikker (honorary)
 * 1952: Leslie Hollinghurst, Henry Mack
 * 1953: Siddiq Abubakar III (honorary), Hilary Blood, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, The Duke of Edinburgh, Alvary Gascoigne, Cecil Harcourt, Alexander Knox Helm, 1st Baron Llewellin, Hugh Pughe Lloyd, 5th Earl of Limerick, Guy Russell, Frank Simpson, Charles Woolley, John William Davis (honorary)
 * 1954: 3rd Baron Aberdare, Idris I of Libya, John Wakeling Baker, 2nd Baronet Bowater, Gilbert Rennie, John Whitworth-Jones, Idris of Libya (honorary)
 * 1955: 3rd Viscount Esher, Geoffrey Oliver, 1st Baron Rootes, John Troutbeck
 * 1956: 9th Earl De La Warr, Miles Dempsey, 1st Baron Erskine of Rerrick, John Morison, Christopher Warner, John Whiteley, Juscelino Kubitschek (honorary), Leif Axel Lorentz Belfrage (honorary)
 * 1957: Nevil Brownjohn, 16th Earl of Dalhousie, Francis Evans, Francis Fogarty, Archibald Forbes, 1st Baron Hailes, Charles Keightley, Charles Pizey, Geoffrey Thompson, Lewis Williams Douglas (honorary), Nils Thomas Svenningsen (honorary)
 * 1958: 1st Baron Citrine, Donald Hardman, Claude Pelly, Denis Truscott, Sir Harold Yarrow, Bt.
 * 1959: John Balfour, 1st Viscount Kemsley, William Palmer, Frederick Parham, Joseph Bech (honorary)

1960s

 * 1960: 4th Baron Cottesloe, Gerald Gladstone, Ian Jacob, Sir Ivo Mallet, Cecil Sugden
 * 1961: 5th Earl of Bandon, James Bowker, Ellis Hunter, William Luce, Ivan Stedeford
 * 1962: Kenneth Blackburne, Hector Hetherington, Oscar Morland, Ricardo Rivera Schreiber (honorary)
 * 1963: Colville Deverell, Walter Merton, Harold Pyman, 10th Earl of Selkirk, Geoffrey Wallinger, Wilfrid Woods
 * 1964: Arthur fforde, James Harman, George Labouchere, Roderick McLeod
 * 1965: Walter Cheshire, Alexander Gordon, James Miller, William Oliver
 * 1966: Robert Bray, Lionel Denny, Alfred Earle, John Graham Hamilton, Hugh Stephenson, André Charles Corbin (honorary)
 * 1967: John Anderson, Robert Bellinger, Alexander Bustamante, Leslie O'Brien
 * 1968: The Duke of Norfolk, Nigel Henderson, Gilbert Inglefield
 * 1969: Kenneth Darling, Charles Gairdner, Sir Louis Gluckstein, Arthur Kirby, David Lee, Charles Trinder

1970s

 * 1970: Ian Bowater, The Lord Thomson of Fleet
 * 1972: Sir Edward Howard, René Jean Pleven (honorary)
 * 1973: The Lord Martonmere, The Lord Cole
 * 1974: Murray Fox, Jack Marshall, The Lord Shawcross
 * 1975: Lindsay Ring, 3rd Baron Rothschild
 * 1976: Hugh Bullock (honorary; first US citizen to receive this honour), Robin Gillett, Sir Murray MacLehose, Richard Ward, Alan Smith
 * 1977: Robert Mark, Peter White, Peter Vanneck
 * 1978: Peter Le Cheminant, Kenneth Cork, Ronald Davison
 * 1979: Peter Gadsden, Yuet-keung Kan, The Earl St Aldwyn

1980s

 * 1980: Hugh Beach, Ronald Gardner-Thorpe
 * 1981: Robert Freer, Christopher Leaver
 * 1982: Anthony Farrar-Hockley, John Fieldhouse, Anthony Jolliffe, Anthony Morton, Francis Vallat
 * 1984: John Gingell, Alan Traill
 * 1985: Allan Davis, Frank Kitson
 * 1986: David Rowe-Ham
 * 1987: Faisal al-Hegelan (honorary), Joshua Hassan, Kenneth Newman, The Lord Plowden, Greville Spratt
 * 1988: Kenneth Berrill, Christopher Collett, Taher al-Masri (honorary), Caspar Weinberger (honorary)
 * 1989: Hugh Bidwell, Sze-yuen Chung, Thomas Eichelbaum, David Harcourt-Smith, Sir John Woodward

1990s

 * 1990: Alexander Graham, Sir Richard Vincent, Sir Tasker Watkins
 * 1991: Jeremy Black, Sir Patrick Hine, Brian Jenkins, Edward Bernard Raczyński (19? December 1991)
 * 1992: Francis McWilliams, Anthony Skingsley
 * 1994: Sir Kenneth Eaton
 * 1995: Ion Caramitru
 * 1997: The Lord Keith of Kinkel, Sir John Willis
 * 1998: The Lord Rothschild, Sir William Wratten
 * 1999: Sir Peter Abbott, Sir Stephen Brown, George J. Mitchell (honorary)

2000s

 * 2000: The Lord George
 * 2002: Sir Anthony Bagnall, Sir Michael Perry, Sir Ronald Waterhouse, Sir Ronnie Flanagan
 * 2004: Sir Cyril Julian Hebden Taylor
 * 2007: Sir David Cooksey, Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman

2010s

 * 2011: The Lord King of Lothbury, The Earl of Selborne, The Lord Weidenfeld
 * 2012: Sir John Parker
 * 2013: Sir Alan Budd, Sir Keith Mills

2014

 * Civil Division
 * Sir John Bell (31 December)
 * Ratan Tata (honorary) (date unknown)

2015

 * Military Division
 * Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach (31 December)

2016

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Ian Wood (11 June)
 * Sir Cyril Chantler (31 December)

2017

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Michael Rawlins (17 June)
 * Sir David Weatherall (17 June)
 * Sir Keith Peters (30 December)

2018

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Craig Reedie (9 June)
 * Sir Christopher Greenwood (9 June)

2019

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Michael Burton

2021

 * Civil Division
 * The Earl Howe (12 June)

2022

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Partha Dasgupta (31 December)

2023

 * Civil Division
 * Sir Bill Beaumont (30 December)
 * Sir James McDonald (30 December)
 * Sir Ridley Scott (30 December)

2024

 * Civil Division
 * The Lord Etherton (14 June)

Unknown

 * Raul Regis de Oliveira (1874–1942)
 * Don Agustin Edwards (1927 or before)
 * Saud of Saudi Arabia
 * Agustín Pedro Justo Rolón
 * Juan Carlos Blanco (1926)
 * Jorge Matte Gormaz
 * General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
 * Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro
 * Paul Ely