Prince William's first investiture ceremony took place last Friday when he honored tennis great Andy Murray with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire). Andy Murray thrilled the British public (and the world) earlier this year when he made history by breaking Great Britain's Wimbledon drought.
While Murray's Wimbledon win was a fantastic coup for the United Kingdom, the decision to award Murray an OBE was made at the end of 2012 after he won gold in the 2012 Olympics and won the U.S. Open.
An OBE is an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was established in 1917 by King George V and is an order of chivalry. It is the largest (and most junior) of the British orders of chivalry and has over 100,000 living members worldwide.
This doesn't make him Sir Andy Murray, at least not yet. Only a GBE (Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross) or KBE or DBE (Knight Commander or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) are automatically entitled to become a knight or a dame and use "Sir" or "Dame" in front of his or her name. However, it is rumored that Murray will be nominated for knighthood. If he is then his nomination will move to the Sports Honours Committe who then either recommend him, or don't, to the main Honours Committee. Apparently Prime Minister David Cameron is backing Murray for knighthood... that seems like a pretty big endorsement to me.
Unfortunately, we won't see Andy Murray on the court for a while as he recovers from back surgery.
Andy Murray wears the adidas Barricade 8 tennis shoes and uses the HEAD YouTek IG Radical Pro tennis racquet.
Tennis Great Andy Murray Awarded OBE
