Royal honour for Indian doctor on Queen’s b’day

Parveen Kumar, a professor of medicine and the author of a revolutionary textbook in the field, has been made a “dame” – the female equivalent of knighthood – in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List released on Friday.

Kumar, born in Lahore in 1942, is the third woman of Indian origin to be accorded the royal honour for women since the order was instituted in 1917 — the first was Maharani Lakshmi Devi of Dhar in 1931;, with educationist Asha Khemka accorded the honour in 2014.

Kumar is a professor of Medicine and Education at Bart’s and the London School of Medicine. The citation accompanying her damehood said: “She is the co-editor and author of the revolutionary 1989 textbook, ‘Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine’. The book is symptomatic of her efforts to improve the education of medical students, doctors and nurses in training both at home and abroad”.

She is among several Indianorigin individuals named for royal honours in the list, including Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, and Sandeep Singh Virdee, founder of the Darbar Arts Culture and Heritage Trust.

Annabel Mehta, mother-inlaw of Sachin Tendulkar and president of NGO Apnalaya, has been named for an MBE for services to the community and under privileged in Mumbai.

Other individuals named in the list include author JK Rowling and musician Paul McCart- ney, who are among the nine named for the Order of the Companion of Honour. Police officer Keith Palmer, who died in the terror attack on Westminster bridge in March, has been named for a posthumous bravery medal.