THE Beatles’ Ringo Starr has told of his shock at receiving a knighthood at Buckingham Palace.

Described as the most overdue knighthood of all time by musical writer Sir Tim Rice, the honour was presented by the Duke of Cambridge.

But Starr, 77, who received the honour under his real name, Sir Richard Starkey, for services to music, insisted it had come as a complete surprise.

“It means a lot. I’m sort of shocked in a way. I was sitting in LA and the letter came and I was so surprised.

“But I think it’s an honour,” said the drummer after the ceremony yesterday.

“A lot of people I don’t know wrote letters saying ‘congratulations, it’s about time,’ but for me the time is when it arrives, and that’s now.

“I just never thought of it. I just got on with my life and here we are. As I said, I’m just really surprised.”

His knighthood came more than 50 years after he, along with band mates John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, visited the palace to receive MBEs.

Starr joins the only other living Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, who was knighted in 1997, in receiving the honour.

Starr was joined by War Horse author Sir Michael Morpurgo in receiving a knighthood.

Morpurgo, 74, joked that Joey, the equine hero of his 1982 children’s book, which became a hit international play, should be receiving the honour. “It’s Sir Joey really, not Sir Michael,” said the writer.

His fellow author, Jilly Cooper, who has also picked up an OBE in the past, collected a CBE for services to literature and charity.

She said she almost stumbled as she collected the award.

“Thankfully I didn’t fall over, it would have been awful,” she said.

Former Scottish rugby player John “Ian” McLauchlan, who collected an OBE, said: “It’s a fantastic honour. It’s an honour for Scottish rugby and for my family as well. I’m very, very pleased.”