Order of the Garter the Prime Minister Clement Attlee and the Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill, membership of the United Kingdom's highest ranking orders of chivalry (the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the dormant Order of St. Patrick) became a personal gift of the Sovereign once again. Thus, the Sovereign personally selects Knights and Ladies Companion of the Garter, and need not act on or solicit the advice of His or Her Government. In addition, the Order includes supernumerary members, who do not count towards the limit of 24 companions. Several supernumerary members, known as "Royal Knights and
SS British Chivalry SS British Chivalry SS "British Chivalry" was a British oil tanker sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean in 1944. The steel-hulled ship was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Jarrow in northern England for the British Tanker Company, the transportation arm of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Launched on 24 January 1929, the ship was long and in the beam, and powered by a 553 nhp quadruple expansion steam engine which gave her a top speed of . On 22 February 1944 "British Chivalry" was sailing alone in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Addu Atoll in