Professor Margaret MacMillan appointed to the Order of Merit

Margaret MacMillan, Honorary Fellow and former Warden of St Antony’s, is one of six leading figures chosen by the late Queen and appointed by the King, as a member of the Order of Merit.

The Order of Merit was created in 1902 by Edward VII to honour leaders in the arts, sciences, culture and military.

Among the distinguished group chosen by the late Queen in early September are a molecular biologist and a geneticist both recipients of the Noble Prize, an award-winning architect, a former nurse who led the way in sickle cell treatment, and a television presenter and author. 

Margaret commented: “This is a great honour and I am delighted to find myself in such distinguished company. I think stunned and delighted is about the best description for me at the moment. I thought the message to call the king’s private secretary was a joke at first. I am rather glad it wasn’t.”

Professor MacMillan is Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, and has a long-standing relationship with St Antony’s. She was a student at the College during the early 1970s, producing a doctoral thesis on the British in India. She returned as a Senior Associate Member in 1993 and was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in 2003. She was appointed fifth Warden of St Antony’s College in July 2007 and stepped down in October 2017. 

Professor MacMillan’s books include Women Of The Raj, Peacemakers: The Paris Conference Of 1919 And Its Attempt To End War, Six Months That Changed The World, and History’s People. Her research specialises in British imperial history and the international history of the 19th and 20th centuries, and her books have been translated into 26 languages.

Find out more about the recent Order of Merit appointments.

Read more about Professor Margaret MacMillan.