Lord Mayors

What is a Lord Mayor?

A Lord Mayor is the chief citizen of a UK City and is an honour bestowed on the city  by the monarch.  In Scotland they are called Lord Provosts

Does every British City have a Lord Mayor?

NO. The honour is not automatic and every city has to apply for it.  There are 30 Lord Mayors (called Lord Provosts in Scotland) but 66 cities in the UK.

Is there another honour after City Status & Lord Mayor?

YES. The use of the style "The Right Honourable" for the Lord Mayor (or Lord Provost in Scotland).

Lord Mayors are addressed by the style of "The Right Worshipful" but the Lord Mayors of 6 cities are entitled to the honourific style of "The Right Honourable".  It is merely a courtesy title and the method of granting the title is by a simple notification of the Sovereign's pleasure, without Warrants or Letters Patent. 

The right to the style of Right Honourable is confined to mainly capital cities or former capital cities. They are  London (Ancient Prescriptive Usage), Edinburgh (Ancient Prescriptive Usage), Cardiff (1956), Belfast (1923), York (Ancient Prescriptive Usage) and Glasgow (1912). 

York was the seat of the Council of the North until 1640 and was a sub-capital of Northern England. Glasgow was granted the privilege in 1912 on the recommendation of the then Scottish Office.

Lord Mayor Tables

Table 1 - UK Cities with Lord Mayors

Table 2 - UK Cities without a Lord Mayor

This page was last updated: 30/09/07

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL