The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order is composed of five classes in civil and military divisions. In descending order of seniority, these are:

Only the highest two ranks automatically cause an individual to become a knight or dame, an honour allowing the recipient to use the title "Sir" (male) or "Dame" (female) before their first name (though men can be knighted separately from this and other Orders of Chivalry). Honorary knighthoods, given to individuals who are not nationals of a realm where Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State, permit use of the honour as a post-nominal but not as a title before their name. Awards in the Order of the British Empire in the Commonwealth Realms were discontinued with the establishment of national systems of honours and awards such as the Order of Australia, the Order of Canada and the New Zealand Order of Merit. Foreign recipients are classified as honorary members of the Order they receive, and do not contribute to the numbers restricted to that Order as full members do.

Mohamed "Mo" Farah (Somali: Muxammad Faarax, Arabic: محمد فرح‎; born 23 March 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia) is a Somalia-born British international track and field athlete, and current 5000 m world champion. On the track, he generally competes over 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, but also runs the 3000 metres and occasionally the 1500 metres. He has expressed a desire to move up to the marathon after the 2012 Olympics.

Farah holds the European track record for 10,000 metres, the British road record for 10,000 metres, the British indoor record in the 3000 metres, the British track record for 5000 metres, the British half-marathon record, and the European indoor record for 5000 metres. In July 2010, Farah won Britain's first-ever men's European gold medal at 10,000 m. He followed this with a gold in the 5000 m, becoming the 5th male athlete to complete the long-distance double at the championships and the first British man to do so. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, he won silver in the 10,000 m and gold in the 5000 m.

Grayson Perry (born 24 March 1960) is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as "Claire", his female alter-ego, often appear. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003.

Grayson Perry was born in Chelmsford. When he was seven, his father left the family because of his mother's adultery. Perry describes his father's departure as the event that had the largest impact on him in his life. He subsequently lived at Bicknacre, Essex, with his mother, his stepfather, a younger sister and two stepbrothers, and attended Woodham Ferrers Church of England School.

In his childhood Perry took an interest in drawing and building model aeroplanes, both of which were to become themes in his work. To escape from a difficult family situation and his stepfather's violence, he retreated to his bedroom or his father’s shed where he became absorbed in a fantasy life, sometimes involving a teddy bear that had become a “surrogate father figure”.

Andrew Sentance CBE is Senior Economic Adviser to PwC, a position he took up in November 2011. He was an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England from October 2006 to May 2011.

Andrew Sentance was born in Bebington on the Wirral in September 1958 and grew up in south-east London. He was educated at Eltham College, Clare College, Cambridge and the London School of Economics. At Eltham College, he studied Economics, Mathematics and History at A Level, and at Clare College gained a BA (Hons, 2.1) in Economics, graduating in 1980. His postgraduate studies were carried out at the London School of Economics, completing an Economics MSc (1981-82) and a PhD - submitting his thesis The Government as employer: a macroeconomic analysis in 1987.

Andrew is a part-time Professorial Fellow at the University of Warwick, based at Warwick Business School where he is developing research into the future Low Carbon Society. He holds a visiting professorship at Royal Holloway, University of London, and was awarded an honorary D.Sc by the University of London in 2008. He is also a Fellow and former Chairman of the Society of Business Economists.