Arise Sir King Kenny
Football legend Dalglish leads the Scots recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list
Scottish football legend Kenny Dalglish has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, it has been announced.
Sir Kenny, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster and remained a steadfast support of the families in their lengthy quest for justice, said he was “hugely proud to have accepted the accolade” for services to football, charity and the City of Liverpool.
The 67-year-old Glaswegian and his wife Marina have also helped raise millions of pounds for cancer treatment through the Marina Dalglish Appeal after she successfully battled breast cancer.
Joking that he thought the letter informing him of the knighthood had been from the taxman, he added of the achievement: “We only set out to do the best we possibly could, even through all the other stuff - the charity or Hillsborough, it was to help people because somebody helped us.”
Among the other prominent names on the list is Oscar-winningactressemmathompson who has been made a dame.
More women, including a nun fighting modern slavery and a businesswoman who made her fortune in fake tan are among those honoured in this 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage - although men outnumber women on the list.
As the NHS celebrates 70 years since its foundation, medics are recognised for their dedication, with health sector workers making up 12 per cent of the 1,057 people honoured in the list.
Dame Emma, 59, who is described in the official citation of the honours committee as one of the UK’S most versatile and celebrated actresses, receives her honour for services to drama.
The Remains Of The Day and Nanny Mcphee star is joined on the list by fellow actor Tom Hardy, who is also recognised for services to drama, receiving a CBE, while Keira Knightley is made an OBE for services to drama and charity.
Following a wave of terror attacks which struck the UK in 2017, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley, who led the national response, is honoured with a knighthood.
On his retirement in March after 31 years in policing, Sir Mark was praised by Prime Minister Theresa May for his “dedication to protecting public safety and tackling the evils of terrorism”.
While there are no honours for local heroes involved in the response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the Cabinet has said it expects “acts of bravery and extraordinary community spirit” which emerged from the tragedy to feature on future lists, adding that its approach will be “time-appropriate”.
The brother of aid worker David Haines, who was murdered by Islamic State extremists, is made an OBE for his work against terrorism.
Mike Haines dedicated the honour, for voluntary service to tolerance and education in the UK and abroad, to his younger sibling, who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists in 2014 after being taken hostage in Syria.
“[I am] deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy”
KAZUO ISHIGURO
Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of chemical company Ineos who this year topped the Sunday Times rich list with £21.05 billion, receives a knighthood for services to business and investment.
Sporting stars are well represented among the recipients, with Premier League and England striker Jermain Defoe describing himself as “blessed and humbled” to be recognised with an OBE for his services to the charitable foundation set up in his name.
Defoe said he felt “mixed emotions”, with the award coming almost a year after the death of six-year-old football mascot Bradley Lowery, with whom the player struck up a strong friendship as the boy battled cancer.
World heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua is made an OBE for services to sport,while20-year-oldalpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain’s most successful winter Paralympian, is the youngest on this year’s list, picking up an MBE for services to Paralympic winter Olympic sport.
In the musical world, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite is honoured with an MBE, under her real name Niomi Mcleandaley, for services to music, while Mobo Awards founder Kanya King receives a CBE for services to music and culture.
Japan-born Nobel prizewinning author Kazuo Ishiguro, knighted for his services to literature, said he was “deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy”.
Former Second World War nurse Rosemary Powell, who at 103 is the oldest on the list, is made an MBE for voluntary service to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, having spent 97 years collecting for the charity.
War correspondent Kate Adie is made a CBE for services to media, while Stacey Dooley, known for her BBC Three investigative series covering topics ranging from the fight against Isis to the abortion debate, receives an MBE for services to broadcasting.
Among the politicians honoured are Conservative MPS Eleanor Laing and Bernard Jenkin, awarded a damehood and a knighthood respectively for their political and public service, while Labour’s Louise Ellman has also been made a dame for parliamentary and political services.
Sir Kenny Dalglish already had many titles and honours – ‘King Kenny’, winner of the Ballon d’or, Scotland’s greatest footballer, league and cup winners’ medals as both a player and a manager, a stand at Anfield named after him – before receiving his knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
If the former Liverpool, Celtic, Cumbernauld United and Scotland player’s legacy had only been about the beautiful game, he would still have been deserving of the title.
But Sir Kenny’s achievements in life have been about much more. His greatest acts took place off the pitch in the comfort he gave to the grieving relatives of the 96 people who died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
At one stage, Sir Kenny and his wife Marina were attending funerals at a rate of four a day. Others in his position would have understandably sought to avoid so much grief. That he did not demonstrated compassion, bravery and loyalty to the fans who adored him. At a time when the Liverpool FC community most needed him, he was there.
In the recent film, Kenny, Margaret Aspinall, who lost her 18-yearold son James at Hillsborough, says: “He’s the king of Anfield but I don’t see him as that. I see a dear man who we’ve adopted in this city. He’s not going back to Glasgow – we won’t let him.” Liverpool’s genuine love for this son of Glasgow is surely the greatest honour of all.
Away from football, Sir Kenny and Marina also set up The Marina Dalglish Appeal with the charity raising millions of pounds to help those with breast cancer.
And, according to Alan Hansen, he is “a funny guy, one of the great, under-appreciated Scottish comedians”. His humour has perhaps passed most people by because he chooses to live his life in private, rather than in public. In media interviews, he can be taciturn at times but, every now and then, there’s a flash of a smile and the eyes twinkle. Scottish Secretary David Mundell could hardly have put it better: “As Scotland’s most capped footballer and joint leading goalscorer, Kenny Dalglish was rightly crowned ‘king’ by his fans around the world. His glittering achievements in football and dedicated service to communities, including through his unwavering support for the families of the Hillsborough victims and the millions of pounds raised by his family’s cancer charity, mean that ‘King Kenny’ now deservedly becomes a Knight.”