Britten received many prizes and honors, including becoming a Companion of Honour in 1952, and a member of the Order of Merit in 1965. The Order of Merit was his most cherished honor; only twenty-four people are allowed to be members at one time. Since its creation in 1902 only two composers prior to Britten received this honor: Elgar in 1912, and Vaughan Williams in 1935. In 1964 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. At fifty he won the Robert O. Anderson Aspen Award in the Humanities, which was a $30,000 prize, and two citations from the New York Music Critics Circle for A Midsummer Night's Dream and the War Requiem. In 1974 he won the French government's Ravel Prize. He was also made a life peer in 1976, the year of his death; the Encyclopedia Britannica entry calls him Baron Britten. He was the first musician to receive this honor.