The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2011
The 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List is published today recognising outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the UK.
The 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List is published today recognising outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The vast majority of the awards go not to stars of sport, stage and screen but to extraordinary people who are making a real contribution to their community. A large number of people recognised include those supporting the Big Society by making a real difference to their local community through volunteering, fundraising, social action and philanthropy.
People honoured with an MBE for making a real impact in their community include:
- Dr Jane Davis who has engaged very many people of all ages and backgrounds in reading through her innovative Get into Reading groups. There are now 170 reading groups meeting weekly across Merseyside.
- Christine Burden who set up the Sweet Memories Senior Citizens’ Club in Oxford 10 years ago and has since run the club on a completely voluntary basis. The club has grown from 10 initial members to now support over 300 pensioners
- Diana Caldicott who for over 39 years has done other people’s often dirty and smelly laundry on a voluntary basis through the WRVS Laundry Service in Malvern. She deals with an average of 37 clients per week, and around 1,900 bags of washing a year. Her service is a lifeline to those in need.
- Kathie Martin who pioneered a highly innovative Crisis Support Service (CSS) for older people with learning difficulties and mental health problems in Coventry.
- Bryan Collier who for nearly 40 years has served the community in the London Borough of Newham in a variety of voluntary positions. In recent years he has been working with the Canning Town Youth project on a youth and elders’ venture which seeks to help the Wombles Recycling Charity.
Philanthropy has also been a prominent theme amongst the recipients, including a CBE to Jack Petchey, Founder, Jack Petchey Foundation for Young People; a CBE to Edward Atkin, for services to Industry and to charity through the Atkin Foundation; a CBE to Charles Jacob, for charitable services; and OBEs to Marcelle Speller, Philanthropist, for services to the Voluntary Sector; and to Dr Keith Howard, Philanthropist, for services to Business, Sport and to the Arts in West Yorkshire.
In total 965 people have been recommended to The Queen for an award:
- 830 candidates have been selected at MBE and OBE level, 594 at MBE and 236 at OBE.
- 74 per cent of the recipients are people who have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity.
- There are 416 successful women candidates in the List, representing 43.2 per cent of the total.
- 7.4 per cent of the successful candidates come from ethnic minority communities.
Among the well known names being honoured, there are knighthoods to Bruce Forsyth, the Entertainer; a DBE for Jennifer Murray, BBC Presenter of Women’s Hour. The CBEs include Colin Firth, the Actor; and Bryan Ferry, the Singer and Songwriter. The Actors, Bernard Cribbens and Tim Brooke-Taylor have been awarded OBEs. There is also an OBE for Lee Westwood, the Golfer, and from the England Cricket Team there are OBEs for Andrew Flower, Team Director, and to Andrew Strauss, Team Captain and Alastair Cook, the youngest Englishman to reach 5,000 Test runs, is awarded an MBE.
This year’s list reflects the variety and make-up of the population and includes, a Sommelier, a Patissier, a Watch Manager and Organist at Wakefield Cathedral.
Awards to women comprise 43.2% of the total. Women candidates include 8 Dames, 28 CBEs and 2 CBs. The DBEs include Helen Alexander, President of the CBI; and Professor Rosemary Cramp, Emeritus/Research Professor of Archaeology, Durham University, who established a charitable organisation to connect her work to society.
There are also three Parliamentarians honoured in this list including a Companion of Honour for Lord (Michael) Howard. Awards at knighthood level are made to Graham Watson, the Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West of England; and to Alan Meale, the Labour MP for Mansfield.
In Law and Order, there is a DBE for the Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC, the first woman to hold the office of Lord Advocate in Scotland. Awards at CBE include Peter Neyroud QPM, Chief Constable and Chief Executive Officer, National Policing Improvement Agency, who is renowned internationally as a leading police academic. There is also an MBE for Brooke Kinsella for services to the Prevention of Knife Crime; since the tragic killing of her brother in 2008 she has worked with local communities and young people to prevent further murders.
About 10.2 per cent of honours are for work in Education. There is a DBE for Dr Reena Keeble, Head teacher, Cannon Lane First School, Harrow, a National Leader of Education who has helped to support other schools across London. There are knighthoods for Chris Woodhead who has had an extensive and distinguished career in education spanning both the local and national level; and for Peter Simpson, Executive Principal, Brooke Weston Partnership, Northamptonshire, who has delivered excellent education to children in a deprived area of the UK.
The list of education CBEs includes Deborah Lavin, Principal, Isle of Wight College; she has led the transformation of the college from one with serious difficulties to an outstanding institution which, as the only FE provider on the island, is the focus of the community.
In total 13 head teachers, and 12 school and college principals are recommended for honours, as well as 6 school governors. The education MBEs also include an award to Patricia Gilman, who has worked at Kenmore Park First School, Harrow, as a Lunchtime Supervisor for over 30 years. The school serves a socially and ethnically mixed area and she has been committed to supporting the needs of over 2,700 pupils through the lunch period during her years of service.
Health makes up 8.4 per cent of all honours. There is a DBE for Ruth Carnall, Chief Executive, London Strategic Health Authority; and the knighthoods include Professor Roger Boyle, National Clinical Director for Heart Disease and Stroke, who has improved services for people with coronary heart disease and stroke. Also recognised with a knighthood is Professor Robert Edwards, who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his work on in vitro fertilization.
There is a rich breadth of vocations within the Health sector; recommendations at MBE include 6 Nurses, 4 GPs, a Midwife, and a Physiotherapist.
Industry and the Economy **makes up 13.4% of the awards and includes a Knight Grand Cross (GBE) for Professor Mervyn **King, Governor of the Bank of England. There are also knighthoods for Frank Chapman, Chief Executive, BG Group; for David Higgins, lately Chief Executive, Olympics Delivery Authority; and for John Peace, Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank.
CBEs include Justin King, Chief Executive, J Sainsbury plc, for services to the Retail Industry, and Penny Hughes, the first female President of the Advertising Association.
OBEs include Dr Sophie Churchill, Chief Executive of the National Forest Company, a powerful ambassador for the forest and its values; and to Christopher Schultheiss the owner and Chief Executive of Supperletter.com, the acclaimed e-postal system for members of the British Service community deployed overseas.
There are MBEs for a wide variety of people, including Mark and Maria Whitehead, Directors of the Hawkshead Relish Company, for services to the Food Industry in Cumbria.
Science and Technology makes up 2.6 per cent of the awards and include a DBE for Professor Sally Macintyre, Professor of Social and Public Health Science, University of Glasgow, and Director of the Medical Research Council, Social and Public Health Sciences Unit.
The MBEs include an award to Jill Pilkington, who has furthered understanding of the ecology and evolution of Soay Sheep on the remote island of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago. For 20 years she has spent about half of every year on Hirta collecting core field information on the life histories of these sheep, allowing analysis into a series of key issues in ecological and evolutionary research.
Arts and Media make up 5.9 per cent of the total. There is a DBE for Janet Suzman, one of the most respected classical stage actresses of our time who has also made a tremendous impact on TV and film.
There is a CBE for Gillian Ayres, one of Britain’s finest and most original abstract artists; and a CBE for Kathryn McDowell, the Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Amongst the OBEs are the Artist and Photographer, Sam Taylor-Wood; and the Jazz Singer, Claire Martin and the Actor Graeme Garden.
The MBEs include the Singh twins, Amrit and Rabindra, for services to the Indian Miniature Tradition of Painting; in 2010 their work was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.
Those supporting local communities through the arts are also recognised including an MBE to Joyce Harper, now aged 91, who set up the Henleaze School of Dancing in Bristol in 1946 and has been teaching ever since raising thousands of pounds for charity through events.
The State Sector **awards include a GCB for Sir Gus **O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service and a KCB for David Bell, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education. There are also knighthoods for Professor Mark Welland, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, and for Dr Henry Burns, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, who led the way to ban smoking in public places in Scotland. There are also KCBs for Dr Malcolm Jack, Clerk of the House of Commons; and for Michael Pownall, lately Clerk of the Parliaments.
Awards for Sport **make up 3.5 per cent of the total. The awards include a knighthood for Henry **Cecil, the Horse Racing Trainer; an OBE for John Amaechi, the first Briton to play in the National Basketball Association in America, who founded the Amaechi Basketball Centre in Manchester. Since 2004 he has been trustee and patron of the UK Sport’s Charity International Development through Sport, and since 2007 he has been the National Coming Out Day spokesman for the Human Rights campaign.
The MBEs include awards to the Athletes, Phillips Idowu and Jessica Ennis; and also a number of people who are supporting their local communities through sport including Thomas Sale who has devoted 80 years of his life to the sport of rugby league, to the Leigh Centurions Rugby League Football Club, and to his local community.
Read more: Full list of Birthday Honours on DirectGov