Although Queen Elisabeth II was the Head of State of Antigua, his knighthood was a foreign order in the UK, no different from any other foreign order. The autonomy and discreteness of the many 'Crowns in right of' is important to all of them. Otherwise we would be just self-governing colonies.

The Queen circumvented this when she wanted to honour David Smith, who was a long-serving Secretary to successive Governors-General of Australia, making him a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, which is in the gift of the Monarch and for services to the Monarch, rather than bestowing a knighthood from an Order which required a nomination by the (British) Government. Many monarchists in Australia considered David Smith's subsequent use the the title 'Sir' to be incorrect, since his knighthood was from a foreign order, believing that he should have used the style 'David Smith, KCVO, AO'. Although The Queen had earlier made Smith a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, that degree did not carry a title, and so the issue did not arise.