Our extraordinary ordinary heroes
Commitment to public service and charity are at the centre of Jubilee awards
‘Fundraising work has been life-changing’
BRITAIN saluted its Platinum Jubilee heroes last night as the Queen’s Birthday Honours focused on rewarding those who share Her Majesty’s commitment to public service and charity.
Celebrities took a back seat as the honours list acknowledged community stalwarts, NHS doctors and nurses and charity volunteers who have given unwavering support to veterans, young people and the environment.
Among the celebrities who were included, many received gongs for their charity work, including actor Damian Lewis, footballer Rio Ferdinand and Coronation Street star Antony Cotton.
Crime writer Ian Rankin received a knighthood after donating around £1million to a charitable trust from royalties over the past five years.
There were also knighthoods for England’s
top doctor Professor Stephen Powis and Covid researcher Professor Aziz Sheikh, who helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of Covid vaccines.
England’s chief nursing officer Ruth May received a damehood, as did Oxford University vice-chancellor Louise Richardson, who helped to secure an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce its Covid vaccine.
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot was knighted for his role in tackling the pandemic.
The majority of honours were awarded to people for outstanding work in their communities and the list celebrated young and old.
At 104, dance teacher Angela Redgrave was the oldest recipient, with a British Empire Medal (BEM) to mark her 70-year teaching career in Bristol.
Eleven-year-old twins Elena and
Ruben Evans-Guillen were the youngest. The brother and sister from Warrington, Cheshire, received BEMs after raising almost £50,000 for the NHS and medical charities through challenges including running, swimming and kayaking.
The twins’ father Mark said their fundraising work had been ‘lifechanging’, and helped them after they were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Campaigner Alexis Bowater was made an OBE for her work on reforming legislation on stalking.
The former ITV West Country presenter, 52, the victim of a stalker, worked with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to launch the world’s first National Stalking Helpline.
She became chief executive of the Network for Surviving Stalking and campaigned for new UK laws that came into force in 2012.
An Honours Committee source said a deliberate effort was made to reward work in public service, the environment and work with young people to reflect the Platinum Jubilee. They included a damehood for
Ann Limb, the first female and openly gay head of the Scouts from 2015 to 2021, who described her honour as ‘a humbling thing’.
Many recipients had overcome personal tragedy, including Maria Hewitt, who volunteered as a Covid vaccinator after her husband died from the virus in June 2020.
The trained nurse from Paisley, Scotland, was rewarded with a BEM – one of dozens of honours given to NHS doctors and nurses to reflect Britain’s ongoing response to the pandemic. Community
nurse Wendy Kimberley, 54, from Norwich, was awarded a BEM after she painted more than 60 portraits of NHS workers during the pandemic.
The former hairdresser who retrained as a nurse in her 40s after she was treated for thyroid cancer said she had wanted to celebrate the work of her NHS colleagues.
Great-grandmother Patricia Husselbee, 80, from Newport, South Wales, received a BEM after 65 years of volunteering for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.