Honoured for great deeds and service
TEACHERS, businesspeople and charity workers are among the North East names included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List this year.
Nationally, a policeman killed after confronting the Westminster attacker outside Parliament and the heroic passer-by stabbed trying to protect MP Jo Cox have been awarded medals for their bravery.
In a break with tradition, the Queen’s Civilian Gallantry List has been released at the same time as the monarch’s birthday honours.
PC Keith Palmer, who was stabbed to death by attacker Khalid Masood in March on the forecourt of the Palace of Westminster, is posthumously awarded the George Medal.
Bernard Kenny, who was stabbed in the abdomen as he tried to stop neo-Nazi Thomas Mair attacking Mrs Cox outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire, receives the George Medal one year on from the murder.
The list also included famous names such as pop star Ed Sheeran and Judy Murray, mother of tennis star Andy Murray. Comedian Billy Connolly was given a knighthood and actress Julie Walters was made a dame.
Sunderland-born singer Emile Sande was made an MBE for services to music.
In the North East, the region’s ambulance service was picked out for commendation, with a Queen’s Ambulance Medal for Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer at North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
Educators in the region were recognised too. One teacher who received an award was Lesley Powell, executive headteacher at the Academy at Shotton Hall in Peterlee and chief executive of the North East Learning Trust. She is made a CBE.
She said: “This award represents the work of many other people, particularly the staff at Shotton Hall, who work tirelessly to give the children of our community access to an education that can compete with the very best schools in the country.
“I’d also like to thank staff in
other schools in our trust and colleagues in education across the region and nationally who have supported me throughout the years. I always wanted to be a teacher and I could never imagine doing anything else. To be rewarded in this way for doing something I love is such an honour.”
Local charity workers have been recognised as well. Among them is Jean Edusei, from High Heaton. Jean has been heavily involved in Girlguiding in the region, and has raised more than £150,000 for an orphanage in Ghana through a charitable trust she set up herself, work which has now earned her an MBE honour.
Meanwhile, economic and business growth in Sunderland gained recognition, with an OBE for Sunderland City Council’s head of automotive, investment & business support, Tom Hurst.
Mr Hurst, who joined the council more than 30 years ago and was part of the team who attracted Nissan to the region in the 1980s, said: “Sunderland has always had a very strong track record in attracting global companies. We’ve continued with that track record and are at the forefront of both job creation and inward investment.”