The Royal Household has made the following announcement this morning:
The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint The Right Honourable Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC FRSE to the Most Ancient and most Noble Order of the Thistle. Appointments to the Order of the Thistle are entirely in the personal gift of The Queen; she is not advised by the Government, as occurs with most other Orders.
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry and represents the highest honour in Scotland. Revived by King James VII in 1687, the Order has a complement of sixteen Knights and Ladies, as well as certain “extra” knights (members of the British Royal Family and foreign monarchs). The Order’s primary emblem is the thistle, the national flower of Scotland. The motto is Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin for “No one provokes me with impunity”). The same motto appears on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom for use in Scotland and some pound coins, and is also the motto of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Scots Guards, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. The patron saint of the Order is St Andrew.
The Right Honourable Dame Elish Angiolini QC is a Scottish lawyer who was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011. Dame Elish served as Lord Advocate of Scotland between 2006 and 2011 as the first woman to hold the post and was also the first woman to hold the role of Solicitor General of Scotland, between 2001 and 2006. Dame Elish has led multiple government inquiries, and in November 2021 it was announced that she would head up the independent inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard.
Since 2012, Dame Elish has served as Principal of St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University since 2017. She holds a visiting professorship at the University of Strathclyde, an honorary professorship at the University of Aberdeen and served as Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland for eight years.