JIMMY Savile was once a national treasure till his horrific crimes came to light after his death.
He was admired for his extensive charity work and was even knighted, to which people called for it to be taken away upon learning the news of his wrongdoings.
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When did Jimmy Savile receive a knighthood and what for?
In 1971, Jimmy Savile was awarded an OBE, a British honour awarded by the Queen to recognise the contributions one has given to the country.
Then in 1990 he was officially knighted.
He was described by The Guardian as a “prodigious philanthropist” and was admired for his charity work.
Savile was estimated to have raised £40 million for charity, in particularly Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
However, it is now believed that he sexually abused the vulnerable patients there and at other hospitals.
Horrifyingly, he was the face of childhood safety campaigns and even a pamphlet called Stranger Danger, which would warn children to be careful of suspicious adults.
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Was Jimmy Savile’s knighthood taken away?
In 2012, the Cabinet Office confirmed that there was no knighthood to revoke in Savile’s case.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron raised the prospect of Savile being posthumously stripped of the honor in the wake of the allegations of sexual abuse against young girls.
“It’s a living order and then you cease to be a member when you die,” a Cabinet Office spokesman said. “There isn’t an honour to revoke.”
Savile would have been stripped of his knighthood if his crimes were exposed during his lifetime.
Knighthoods can only be held by a living person and fall away after their death, so they cannot be removed once the person has passed.
Where is Jimmy Savile now?
Savile was found dead at his home in Roundhay on October 29, 2011, two days before his 85th birthday.
He had previously been in hospital with pneumonia, an infection that causes an inflammation in the lungs.
His death was not considered suspicious.
His satin gold coffin was displayed at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, with the last every cigar he smoked and two of his This Is Your Life Books.
Savile was then buried in Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough, where the locals requested to have his body exhumed and cremated.
However, nobody was prepared to pay the £20,000 to dig him up.
