Formal term of address

[coyn]

If you have a doctorate and a knighthood what is your formal term of address? In letter form I mean

[j2buttonsw]

The short answer is I don't know but in academic circles a professor who is a knight has the professor first eg: Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz However, since the Dr is lowly I would stick to Sir Blah Blah

[Grunty]

I found a government website which was quite unhelpful, and said "people may have multiple occurrences of titles" and left it at that.

Personally I would go for Sir Fred Bloggs, MD.

Apologies to Fred Bloggs if he is reading this.

[Octavius]

Honorary awards generally take precedent over academic ones, except in this example:

Sir Ronald Oxburgh, former President, and Rector of Imperial College, London. Professor Oxburgh has taken the title Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool. A prof of geology and a former chairman of Dutch Shell plc, he is adressed in formal circumstances as.....

Lord Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, and is usually known as Ron Oxburgh FRS,PhD,KBE.

I just call him Ronnie.

[Octavius]

Just to add, he is Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool

[Quizmonster]

A title is considered subsidiary to a rank or high professional qualification. Thus we have Professor Lord Robert Winston, the moustachioed baby-expert often seen on TV. Had he been a mere holder of a doctorate who was granted a knighthood, he would have been described as Doctor Sir Robert Winston. In the same way, senior military officers who attain a knighthood are called, say, Major General Sir Digby Fotherington.
In a letter, I would advise putting the full rank/title as outlined above in the address-block followed by 'Dear Sir'...unless you know him personally well enough to write 'Dear Sir John'...ie no differently from the approach you would take with any other 'unknown' man.

[Grunty]

I forgot to say that in the example I gave, you need to telephone the doctor's secretary or receptionist for the accurate qualifications.

[coyn]

Thanks all just as a matter fair play I thought it would be

Sir blah phd kbe

Since William Hills have me at 40000000 to one to get either a Knighthood or a PHD I probably shouldn't concern myself all that much.

[Octavius]

you could probably buy one and make a nice profit

[coyn]

Octavious I think I would have to show some proof of legality of right before they would pay up.

[jake-the-peg]

40,000,000 to 1 against getting a doctorate or a Knighthood?

Surely not! with 60 Million in the country and a doctorate being something that anybody can earn with a bit of aptitude and a ton of work

Sounds like a good way of financing your post-doctoral research!

[jno]

for knighthoods, just donate to New Labour. I'm not sure what the going rate is, however (and I suppose if you have to ask, you can't afford it).

[PhilBy]

Do political bores & their brain dead commnets annoy anyone?