Queen’s Birthday Honours list: Record number of women included

A record number of women have been included in the Queen's Birthday Honours list marking the Platinum Jubilee.

The 584 women, representing 51.5 per cent of the total, trumps the previous record of 556, set in December 2020.

The list, with its themes of sustained service and environmentalism, offers a reflection of the Queen’s own decades of public service.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said: “This historic Platinum Jubilee is not only a celebration of the monarch but of the qualities she possesses. The honours she confers this week reflect many of those qualities that have been invaluable from all different walks of life and to communities across the UK.

“I pay tribute to all of this year’s winners. Their stories of courage and compassion are an inspiration to us all.”

Despite a drive by the honours committee to increase female representation, women remain underrepresented at the highest levels of awards. Just 44.8 per cent of CBE level and above are female, and there are 21 knighthoods to just 13 damehoods.

Dame Barbara Monroe, the chairperson of the Public Service Committee, said the committee was working to redress this as well as increase the number of working-class and ethnic minorities honorees.

She said: “The list can only be truly representative if we receive nominations for consideration from all groups of society and all parts of the UK. And we continue to work really hard to promote the fact that anybody can nominate someone they consider worthy of an award.”

Of the recipients, 13.3 per cent are from an ethnic minority background, 9.3 per cent are disabled or have a long-term health condition, 24.3 per cent consider themselves to come from a lower socio-economic background and 4.6 per cent are LGBT.

Among the women's rights campaigners who make the list is Alexis Bowater, a former journalist and victim of cyber-stalking who campaigns for better protection and help for women, who has been given an OBE.

She said she hoped the recognition would give her a platform to spread awareness of abuse so “that we can help each other change… with men and women working meaningfully together”.

Dame Susan Ion is to receive a Dame Grand Cross for her impact in the field of nuclear engineering and for fostering a new generation of engineers among under-represented communities.

The former grammar school pupil advised multiple British governments on nuclear power and has been outspoken on the idea that girls are drawn towards easier subjects than maths and physics.

The historian of the British Empire, Linda Colley, who has written extensively about the creation of British identity including the place of women, has been made a Dame Commander.

Cop26 organisers receive honours

Ten civil servants and the head of Glasgow Council who helped to organise and run the Cop26 climate summit have been recognised for their work, despite the event failing to meet the sky-high expectations set by the Government.

The summit, held in Glasgow last November, was billed as a crucial follow up to the 2015 Paris summit where nearly every nation on Earth agreed to limit its emissions.

But while Cop26 was not a failure, it ended on a disappointing note when a block of developing countries led by India managed to remove a promise to “phase out” coal power. Instead, signatories pledged to “phase down” the heavily polluting fossil fuel.

Nevertheless, 11 civil servants have been honoured. Matthew Tombs from the Cabinet Office, who was the director of campaigns and engagement at Cop26, received a CBE.

Eleanor O’Riordan, deputy director of events for the Cabinet Offices Cop26 unit, also received an OBE.

Annemarie O'Donnell, the chief executive of Glasgow City Council, was also recognised with an OBE, despite the Scottish city struggling with a severe accommodation shortage during the summit that saw hotel room prices hit £1,400 a night.

In total, one CBE, four OBEs and six MBEs have been handed out to Cop26 organisers.

Ahead of the summit, the hope had been to get the world on track to limit average global warming to 1.5C.

However, just a day before it opened, Boris Johnson was forced to admit that a failure to get China on board with tougher emissions cuts had made such a goal unachievable at Cop26.

Combined with the rearguard action by India, it left a tearful Alok Sharma, the Cabinet minister and Cop26 president, able to claim only that attendees had “kept 1.5 degrees alive”.

Wheelwright with Royal Warrant gets OBE

A wheelwright with a Royal Warrant to the Queen who can trace his family business back to 1331 has been honoured.

Gregory Rowland, 52, from Honiton in Devon, has been given an MBE for services to heritage crafts.

He has worked for the family business, Mark Rowland & Sons, for 32 years, having started out as an apprentice to his father, Mark.

The elder Mark Rowland set the business up in 1964, but the family have documents showing that relatives were in the wheelwright business as far back as 1331.

“It’s not a continuous business, but we’ve got wheelwrights in our family from 1331, and it was actually about seven miles from where I am now and it was the same name back then, which is quite odd,” Mr Rowland told The Telegraph.

The company is one of just two which looks after the Queen’s carriages, although Mr Rowland is not permitted to disclose the exact nature of his work for Her Majesty.

He told The Telegraph that while it was an honour to have the Royal Warrant, it was only a small part of his business. The majority of his income comes from making gun carriages for field gun competitions.

“Although this is an old traditional craft, and we have to keep all those skills alive, you've got to be progressive as well,” he said.

The Queen has also personally honoured John Warren, her bloodstock and racing adviser, by making him a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

The order recognises distinguished personal service to the Queen, her family or her representatives and membership is at the sole discretion of the monarch.

Particular recognition for public service

The Queen's Birthday Honours list especially recognises those who have echoed the monarch's lifelong dedication to public service.

Nearly 60 per cent of recipients are cited for their community work, with particular emphasis on individuals who have, like the Queen, spent decades working for the benefit of others.

Angela Redgrave, the 104-year-old founder and principal of Bristol School of Dancing, is the oldest recipient on this year's list. She has taught ballet at the institution for over 50 years and still oversees lessons. She is to receive a BEM.

Also commended for a life dedicated to service is Patricia Anne Husselbee, who has spent 64 years fundraising for the Royal British Legion.

At a press conference this week to announce the honours list, the Secretary of the Newport Women’s Section said: “I don’t do it for the medals, I do it because it’s needed. You see those poor soldiers, hear their stories, which are hard.”

The 2022 Birthday Honours list also reflects how much public attitudes have changed during the Queen’s reign. Rupert Whitaker and Martyn Butler, co-founders of the HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust which was created in 1982 and named after one of the UK’s first known Aids patients to die, both receive OBEs.

The Trust has for many years had support from the Duke of Sussex, who embraced his mother Princess Diana’s legacy of working with Aids patients.

While many recipients have a lifetime of public service behind them, others have only just begun. The youngest honorees announced on Wednesday were 11-year-old twins Elena and Ruben Evans-Guillen from Warrington, who have raised nearly £50,000 for NHS and NHS-related charities over the last three years.

On Sunday, they had already embarked on their newest fundraising effort – swimming the equivalent of the English Channel in a swimming pool to raise money for the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust, a Cheshire organisation that helps children with difficult childhoods.

Last year they were given one of the Prime Minister’s Point of Light Awards, for their efforts.

Dame Barbara Monroe, the chairperson of the Public Service Committee, said: “I think we're in danger of a public discourse that is, is a little bit cynical, and mistrustful, and the honour system is one way of us recognising what I have learned through my own professional career in end-of-life care, which is that there is the most amazing impulse toward kindness and compassion in people.

“People want to make things better for other people, and they don't want people to be left behind. Recognising that endeavour, it's what the honours system is about.”