The Independent has an article on folks who turned down Royal honours, among whom was Robert Graves:
War poet and classicist Robert Graves rejected a CBE in 1957, and would go on to reject the Companion of Honour in 1984. He told an interviewer: “I don’t want any honours but I wouldn’t so much mind being honoured for writing novels which sell abroad and earn money for England.” The author of I, Claudius continued: “Writing poems is different. To get a CBE for being a poet would be absurd. But the government always tries to coax well-known writers into the Establishment; it makes them feel educated.”
rogueclassicism 