Queen’s last gift for Floella

ONE of the late Queen’s final wishes has been carried out, with six new appointments to the country’s distinguished

Order of Merit. Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth chose them in ‘early September, shortly before she died’.

Her decision has now been ratified and carried out by the King, his first such duty as Sovereign of the Order.

The new members are: children’s campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin, pictured; Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye; nursing pioneer Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu; actress and historian Professor Margaret MacMillan; geneticist Sir Paul Nurse, and Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist.

Such appointments are made in recognition of distinguished service to the Armed Forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture.