Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool on 18 June 1942. He was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute, where he did better at English Literature than he did at formal music lessons. First with and then without John Lennon, Paul McCartney has written some of the best-known words of the twentieth century. A Freeman of the City of Liverpool and Lead Patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Paul McCartney is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and a Fellow of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. In 1996 he was knighted by HM the Queen for his services to music.