London: In a unique honour, Sir Ravinder Maini, a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Professor of Rheumatology at Imperial College, London, was knighted by the Queen on April 30, an honour his father received 46 years ago.

Sir Ravinder received the honour for his pioneering research into a cure for rheumatoid arthritis.

In 1957, as a young undergraduate studying medicine at Cambridge, he accompanied his father, Sir Amar Maini, to the Buckingham Palace for an identical investiture ceremony. SirAmar, who died in 1999, had been Mayor of Kampala, and a leading politician in Uganda before he migrated to the UK.

Amar, who was born in India and grew up in East Africa, was knighted for public services in East Africa, in the days when that corner of the continent was run by a British colonial administration.

Though brothers have been knighted before, as in the Swires who ran Cathay Pacific Airways, a son following a father is thought to be unique in recent times.

"Our records go back to 1257, so it would take an age to check whether this has happened before, but we cannot recall a similar event in living memory," a spokeswoman for the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor said.

PTI