Editing Lord Mayor of London (section)

==Titles and honours==
[[File:William McArthur, Vanity Fair, 1881-10-08.jpg|thumb|upright|[[William McArthur (Lord Mayor of London)|Sir William McArthur]], Lord Mayor of London, [[Cartoon|caricatured]] by [[Leslie Ward]], 1881]]
Of the 69 cities in the United Kingdom, the City of London is among the 30 that have lord mayors (or, in [[Scotland]], [[lord provost|lords provost]]). The Lord Mayor is entitled to the prefix [[The Right Honourable]]; the same privilege extends only to the lord mayors of [[York]], [[Cardiff]], Bristol and [[Belfast]], and to the lords provost of [[Edinburgh]] and [[Glasgow]]. The style is used when referring to the office as opposed to the holder thereof; thus, "The Rt Hon Lord Mayor of London" would be correct, while "The Rt Hon William Russell" would be incorrect. The latter prefix applies only to [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|privy counsellors]] and peers.

A woman who holds the office is also known as a [[Lord Mayor]]. The wife of a male Lord Mayor is styled as [[Lady Mayoress]], but no equivalent title exists for the husband of a female Lord Mayor. A female Lord Mayor or an unmarried male Lord Mayor may appoint a female consort, usually a fellow member of the Corporation, to the role of Lady Mayoress. In speech, a Lord Mayor is referred to as "My Lord Mayor", and a Lady Mayoress as "My Lady Mayoress".

It was once customary for Lord Mayors to be appointed [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Knighthood|knights]] upon taking office and [[baronet]]s upon retirement, unless they already held such a title. This custom was followed with a few inconsistencies from the 16th until the 19th centuries; creations became more regular from 1889 onward. From 1964 onward, the regular creation of hereditary titles such as baronetcies was phased out, so subsequent Lord Mayors were offered knighthoods (and, until 1993, most often as Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (GBE)). Since 1993, Lord Mayors have not automatically received any national honour upon appointment; instead, they have been made [[knights bachelor]] upon retirement, although [[Brown Ministry|Gordon Brown's Government]] broke with that tradition by making [[Ian Luder]] a [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]], after his term of office in 2009, and the following year [[Nick Anstee]] declined offers of an honour. Furthermore, foreign heads of state visiting the City of London on a UK state visit, diplomatically bestow upon the Lord Mayor one of their suitable national honours. For example, in 2001, [[Sir David Howard, 3rd Baronet|Sir David Howard]] was created a Grand Cordon (First Class) of the [[Order of Independence (Jordan)|Order of Independence]] of [[Jordan]] by [[Abdullah II of Jordan|King&nbsp;Abdullah&nbsp;II]]. Recently Lord Mayors have been appointed at the beginning of their term of office [[Venerable Order of Saint John|knights or dames of St John]], as a mark of respect, by the late Queen [[Elizabeth II]], Sovereign Head of the [[Venerable Order of St John|Order of St John]] until [[Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II|her death in 2022]].