The King has filled vacancies in the Order of the Thistle

 His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to appoint four new members to the Most Ancient & Most Noble Order of the Thistle:

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh (on the occasion of his 60th birthday). The King's youngest brother is already a Knight of the Garter. In recent years the monarch has bestowed honours on Edward on the occasion of his birthday. The prince was bestowed with the Earldom of Forfar (in the Peerage of the United Kingdom), in 2017, and last year he was created Duke of Edinburgh, but in a break with tradition the peerage was awarded for his life only, and will not be inherited by his son, James. However, Edward’s subsidiary peerages will pass to James on the the Duke of Edinburgh’s death. 

Awarding honours to members of the royal family as birthday presents is an old tradition favoured by Queen Victoria and King George V. In 1928 the king gave the dukedom of Gloucester, Earldom of Ulster and Barony of Culloden to his third son, Prince Henry, on his 28th birthday.

Professor Baroness Black of Strome (born 7 May, 1961), is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She is President of St John's College, Oxford.

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (born 12 May, 1950), Scottish barrister, broadcaster and Labour member of the Lords, a lifer.

Professor Sir Geoff (Godfrey Henry Oliver) Palmer, Kt (2014), OBE (2003) b in Jamaica 1940, m 1969 Margaret Ann Wood, and has a son and a daughter. He is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, and a human rights activist.

Appointments to the Order of the Thistle are entirely in the personal gift of the Sovereign.

The Most  Ancient and Most  Noble Order of the Thistle represents the highest honour in Scotland. Revived by King James VII, the Order has a complement of 16 Knights (KT)

-=-