Captain Vivian Bullwinkle (sole survivor of the Sumatran massacre of Australian nurses by Japanese forces in the Second World War), Sir Donald Bradman, Mrs Ray Gillam and Lady Bradman after the ceremony awarding Sir Donald Bradman his Knighthood, March, 1949.

On January 1, 1949 just prior to his last First-Class match, it was announced that Don Bradman has been awarded a Knighthood in recognition of his services to cricket. In March of that year the Governor-General, Mr W.J. McKell conferred the award at an investiture ceremony at Parliament House in Melbourne.

‘I must confess that I feel a sense of pride that my wife could thus share in a positive way some reflected glory and she always bore her newfound status with grace and dignity worthy of any title. But for me personally, as a private man and citizen, I always preferred to think as myself as just plain Don Bradman, the boy from Bowral.’

In 1979 the Australian Government awarded Sir Donald with a Companion of the Order of Australia, the second highest civil Australian award. In 1988 Sir Donald was proclaimed the greatest Australian male athlete for the last 200 years by the Confederation of Australian sport, and in 2000 was recognised as Wisden 'Cricketer of the Century'.