@prefix honours: . @prefix skos: . @prefix schema: . @prefix dct: . @prefix owl: . @prefix rdfs: . @prefix xsd: . ################################################################# # Honours ontology # # The reusable DOMAIN MODEL for UK honours award types: the classes # (order of chivalry, grade, decoration, medal) and the properties # that describe their structure and precedence (order seniority, # grade rank, order membership, the derived "outranks" relation). # # This is deliberately separate from, and reusable independently of: # - the SKOS concept scheme /id/honours, which supplies the actual # award TERMS (GBE, MBE, Bath ...) and the FACT VALUES for these # properties (each order's honours:orderSeniority, each grade's # honours:gradeRank); it types its concepts against these classes. # - the Honoria core ontology /id/core, the application model of # conferrals (Honour), people and provenance, which owl:imports # this ontology and points honoria:awardType at the scheme's # concepts. # # So: this file DEFINES the vocabulary; the SKOS scheme carries the # term list and the values; consuming rules (datalog/SHACL) compose # the total order of precedence. The seniority values themselves are # intrinsic facts about the UK honours system (see the order of wear # published in The Gazette and the Cabinet Office reference below), # not an implementation artefact. ################################################################# a owl:Ontology ; dct:title "Honours ontology"@en ; dct:description "Classes and properties describing UK honours award types and their order of precedence (orders of chivalry, grades, decorations and medals; order seniority and grade rank). The controlled list of award terms is the separate SKOS scheme at /id/honours."@en ; rdfs:seeAlso , ; dct:source , , ; owl:versionIRI ; owl:versionInfo "1.0.0-draft" ; dct:modified "2026-07-27"^^xsd:date ; dct:license . ################################################################# # Classes ################################################################# honours:Award a owl:Class ; rdfs:label "Award"@en ; rdfs:comment "A type of UK honour: an order of chivalry, a grade within an order, or a standalone decoration or medal. The individuals of this class are the skos:Concepts of the /id/honours vocabulary (an award type is a term, not a class of conferrals); a specific conferral links to one via honoria:awardType."@en . honours:OrderOfChivalry a owl:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf honours:Award ; rdfs:label "Order of chivalry"@en ; rdfs:comment "A British order of chivalry (e.g. the Order of the Bath, the Order of the British Empire). Some orders have a single class (Garter, Thistle, Order of Merit, Companions of Honour); others are graded. Carries honours:orderSeniority."@en . honours:Grade a owl:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf honours:Award ; rdfs:label "Grade"@en ; rdfs:comment "A grade (class) within a graded order of chivalry, e.g. Knight Grand Cross or Member. Related to its order by skos:broader / honours:withinOrder; carries honours:gradeRank."@en . honours:Decoration a owl:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf honours:Award ; rdfs:label "Decoration"@en ; rdfs:comment "A standalone gallantry or service decoration that is not a grade of an order of chivalry, e.g. the Victoria Cross, George Cross or Military Cross. In the order of wear the Victoria Cross and George Cross precede all orders of chivalry."@en . honours:Medal a owl:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf honours:Award ; rdfs:label "Medal"@en ; rdfs:comment "A medal associated with an order but not itself a class of it, e.g. the British Empire Medal or the Royal Victorian Medal. Associated with its order by honours:withinOrder and placed by honours:gradeRank below the order's lowest grade."@en . ################################################################# # Properties ################################################################# honours:orderSeniority a owl:DatatypeProperty, owl:FunctionalProperty ; rdfs:domain honours:OrderOfChivalry ; rdfs:range xsd:positiveInteger ; rdfs:label "order seniority"@en ; rdfs:comment "The seniority of an order of chivalry among the orders, 1 = most senior. An intrinsic fact of the UK honours system: Garter (1), Thistle (2), Bath (3), Order of Merit (4), St Michael and St George (5), Royal Victorian Order (6), Order of the British Empire (7), Companions of Honour (8). The Victoria Cross and George Cross are gallantry decorations (honours:Decoration) that precede all orders and are not part of this numbering. Source: the order of wear published in The Gazette (11 January 2019)."@en . honours:gradeRank a owl:DatatypeProperty, owl:FunctionalProperty ; rdfs:domain honours:Award ; rdfs:range xsd:positiveInteger ; rdfs:label "grade rank"@en ; rdfs:comment "The rank of a grade within its order, 1 = most senior. An intrinsic fact of the honours system: Grand Cross (1), Knight/Dame Commander (2), Commander/Companion (3), Lieutenant/Officer (4), Member (5), and the associated Medal (6). Comparable only within one order; use honours:orderSeniority to compare across orders."@en . honours:withinOrder a owl:ObjectProperty ; rdfs:domain honours:Award ; rdfs:range honours:OrderOfChivalry ; rdfs:label "within order"@en ; rdfs:comment "The order of chivalry a grade belongs to, or a medal is associated with. For grades this is the same relationship SKOS records as skos:broader; medals (which are not a class of their order) use only honours:withinOrder."@en . honours:gradeName a owl:DatatypeProperty, owl:FunctionalProperty ; rdfs:domain honours:Grade ; rdfs:range xsd:string ; rdfs:label "grade name"@en ; rdfs:comment "The rank word by which a grade is announced in a London Gazette honours list, in canonical singular form (e.g. \"Grand Cross\", \"Knight Commander\", \"Dame Commander\", \"Commander\", \"Companion\", \"Officer\", \"Lieutenant\", \"Member\"). Distinct from skos:prefLabel (the full grade name, \"Member of the Order of the British Empire\") and skos:notation (the post-nominal, \"MBE\"): gradeName is the heading/prose token a parser matches against, so that resolving a Gazette grade heading to its concept is driven by the vocabulary rather than a hard-coded table. Where the Gazette prose omits gender (\"Grand Cross\"), it resolves to the grouping grade; the gendered forms (\"Knight Grand Cross\" / \"Dame Grand Cross\") carry their own gradeName."@en . honours:outranks a owl:ObjectProperty, owl:TransitiveProperty ; rdfs:domain honours:Award ; rdfs:range honours:Award ; rdfs:label "outranks"@en ; rdfs:comment "Award type A outranks award type B in the order of precedence. DERIVED, not asserted here: compose grade rank first, then order seniority (a rule for consumers, e.g. RDFox datalog, using honours:gradeRank and honours:orderSeniority). Precedence between individual people additionally breaks ties by date of appointment, which is a fact of the conferral, not of the award type."@en . honours:postNominal a owl:DatatypeProperty ; rdfs:subPropertyOf skos:notation ; rdfs:domain honours:Award ; rdfs:range xsd:string ; rdfs:label "post-nominal"@en ; rdfs:comment "The post-nominal letters for an award, e.g. \"GBE\", \"MBE\". A typed alias of skos:notation, which the /id/honours scheme uses to carry the same value."@en . honours:gazetteNoticeCode a owl:DatatypeProperty ; rdfs:range xsd:string ; rdfs:label "Gazette notice code"@en ; rdfs:comment "The London Gazette notice code (gaz:hasNoticeCode) of the notice type that announces this honour, e.g. \"1129\" for the Order of the British Empire and \"1130\" for the British Empire Medal. Order-level: a single code covers every grade of an order (the grade is carried separately on the notice as isAppointedAs), so it is asserted only on the order or standalone-award concept and grades inherit it via skos:broader. Sourced from the Gazette honours ontology (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/def/honours), where each *Notice class declares the value via owl:hasValue on hasNoticeCode; the code is the definitive filter for retrieving a notice type from the Gazette, and BEM (1130) is distinct from the Order of the British Empire (1129). The subject is normally an award concept, but need not be: the generic code \"1105\" (a notice about honours in general rather than about one award) is asserted on the /id/honours concept scheme itself, which is the resource that means \"all of these\". A consumer reading the codes should therefore expect a subject that is not a skos:Concept, and should treat 1105 as opt-in - it matches far more broadly than the award-specific codes."@en .