UK celebrates unsung heroes and community champions in HM The King's New Year Honours list
HM The King’s New Year Honours List 2025 recognises unsung heroes who have made outstanding contributions to their communities across the UK.
More than 1,200 recipients receive honours this year across all sectors, with particular commendation to role models in sport, healthcare, academia and voluntary service.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said:
Each and every day, ordinary people go out and do extraordinary things for their communities.
They represent the very best of the UK and that core value of service which I put at the centre of everything this government does.
The New Year Honours List celebrates more of these unsung heroes, and I thank them for their incredible contribution.
Among those being honoured today is former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate, who receives a Knighthood for services to Association Football. Beyond the pitch, Southgate has been actively involved in charitable work including supporting the Prince’s Trust, a youth charity that helps young people get into education, training, and employment.
The List awards a Companion of Honour, of which there are only 65 recipients at any time, to author and screenwriter Sir Kazuo Ishiguro; and a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for author Dame Jacqueline Wilson, and a Knight Grand Cross for Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz lately Chair of Cancer Research.
Damehoods are being awarded to Professor Alison Fuller for her work in Higher Education and Ruth Cairnie, Chair of Babcock International. Notable CBE recipients include Alan Titchmarsh, and actors Sarah Lancashire and Carey Mulligan.
The oldest recipient, World War Two Mosquito pilot Colin Bell, is 103 years old and receives a BEM for his charitable fundraising and public speaking about WWII Bomber Command.
The List also features two further centenarians: George Kelly aged 101, who receives an MBE for services to the Royal British Legion and to Royal Air Force Veterans. George had a distinguished career as an RAF navigator and has given over 40 years of selfless voluntary service to the RBL. And Roy Gibson, aged 100, was awarded a BEM for services to space. Roy has had an immeasurable impact on UK and European space policy over his 70-year career as a leader for multiple international space organisations.
The Government is committed to ensuring that honours are awarded to outstanding people from across the whole of the UK and the system reflects the best of society. The List ensures that people from underrepresented communities and a wide variety of types of work are rewarded, to celebrate the fantastic contribution of people throughout the country.
Both of this year’s youngest recipients are aged 18 years old. Mikayla Beames, aged 18, has been awarded a BEM for her charitable fundraising for children with cancer in Oxfordshire. After being diagnosed with brain cancer at 4 years old, she founded her namesake charity, Team Mikayla in 2014, has supported hundreds of children who are fighting cancer, and distributes thousands of gifts at Christmas and Easter. She has also helped to raise over £300,000 since 2014. Paralympian William Ellard, aged 18, receives an MBE after winning three medals including gold at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
Wendy Ansell, from Swansea, is a specialist midwife who has received an MBE for services to survivors of harmful practices and to women seeking sanctuary for her work supporting survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM) and vulnerable women. She has developed bespoke training programmes for healthcare professionals to enhance their understanding of the needs of women who have undergone FGM or are seeking asylum.
Anyone can nominate someone for an honour. If you know someone who has achieved fantastic things worthy of recognition, go to www.gov.uk/honours to find out more about how you can put them forward.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Rt Hon. Pat McFadden MP, said:
This year’s New Year Honours List celebrates the unsung heroes who contribute selflessly to their communities across the UK. I send them all my congratulations for their achievements.
Our honours system uniquely recognises the generous contributions of individuals across our nation.
If you know someone in your community who has done something extraordinary, nominate them for an honour so the nation can recognise their achievements.
Other recipients include:
Community
Michael Bennion, aged 72, receives an MBE for services to Scouting and to Young People after supporting hundreds of young people during his 54 years as a Scout Leader.
Deirdre Amor has been awarded an MBE for services to the Community in Northern Ireland. She has worked in state education for 45 years, where she developed after-school meetings that brought together staff and parents from across the political divide in Belfast. Upon retirement she voluntarily gave of her time and skills to improve two failing schools.
Young people
This year’s youngest recipients are aged 18 years old.
Mikalya Beames, aged 18, has been awarded a BEM for her charitable fundraising for children with cancer in Oxfordshire. After being diagnosed with brain cancer at 4 years old, she founded her namesake charity, Team Mikayla in 2014, which is dedicated to granting the wishes of children who are fighting cancer. As of this year, the charity has granted 220 wishes to children who are fighting cancer, and distributed over 1000 Christmas presents and 1000 Easter Eggs. She has also helped to raise over £300,000 since 2014.
Paralympian William Ellard, aged 18, receives an MBE after winning three medals including gold at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
Rebecca Clarke, aged 20 received a BEM for services to Young People with Disabilities and Autism. She champions marginalised young people, particularly focusing on intersectionality. Through her work with NCS, she has also contributed to disability policy, submitting evidence to the disability access youth select committee and speaking about her lived experience to over 400 people.
Health
Stephen Fry receives a Knighthood for his work on mental health awareness. He is an honorary fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrists and President of the mental health charity Mind since 2011. During his time as President of Mind, he has been instrumental in changing the conversation around mental health and has worked tirelessly to change public attitudes in the UK about mental health for the better.
Neil Liam Halford and Nicola Claire Halford receive an MBE for services to Charitable Fundraising for Children with an Illness after co-founding the charity Time is Precious in 2011. The organisation works alongside specialists to purchase equipment and refurbish areas to support not just those sick children and their families. Since 2017, raised over £1.3m using the funds to help provide facilities in a number of hospitals in the area.
Sarah White and Kenneth White both receive a BEM for services to Children and Young People Suffering Paediatric Cancer. Supershoes have donated over 6000 pairs of shoes to children across the UK and raised over £25k to provide children with a unique pair of shoes they can wear with pride.
Sport
Receiving an OBE, Helen Glover, one of the most decorated female rowers in the history of British rowing with more than 20 gold medals to her name. She is a two-time Olympic, three-time world and five-time European champion. Glover initially retired from rowing after the 2016 Olympic Games to start a family. After giving birth to three children, she returned to training in 2021, winning a gold medal at the European Championships that year and a silver medal in the coxless four at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Keely Hodgkinson from Greater Manchester is a two time Olympic Medalist who has been awarded an MBE for services to Athletics after winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024.
Eleanor Aldridge receives an MBE for services to Sailing after becoming the first athlete to ever win a sailing kiteboarding gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Bryony Page of South Yorkshire receives an MBE for services to Trampoline Gymnastics after winning her third Olympic medal at Paris 2024.
Sabrina Fortune receives an MBE after winning a gold medal at Paris 2024 in the F20 shot put, beating her own world record in the process.
Jackson Gibbons, from London who founded City of London Academy Southwark’s Basketball Academy, now one of the UK’s most successful youth basketball programmes, has been awarded a BEM for services to Young People and to Basketball.
Arts
Author Dame Jacqueline WILSON DBE has been awarded a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.