 He was knighted in 1976 and created Baron Hanson, of Edgerton in the County of West Yorkshire, a life peerage, on 30 June 1983.Hanson's greatest deal was the 1986 purchase of Imperial Group, a British tobacco conglomerate with a diversified portfolio of brand leaders in tobacco, brewing and food, and with a cash rich pension fund, that was his real target.Hanson's team turned up in Bristol the morning of the takeover to find the Pension Trustees had closed the Fund the evening before, denying him the asset.