The chief executive of Arts Council England and the former head of the Association of Medical Research Charities are among the voluntary sector figures to receive top awards in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Darren Henley and Aisling Burnand, who stepped down from the AMRC due to ill-health last year, have both been given CBEs in this year’s honours list.
Other voluntary sector individuals to receive a CBE include Una Cleminson, chair of the Royal British Legion; Catherine Mallyon, executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Kate Davies, chief executive of the social landlord Notting Hill Genesis; and Julia Morley, founder of the children’s charity Beauty With A Purpose.
Lawrie Haynes, former chair of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, and Jane Hanson, chair of the Reclaim Fund, the company that enables money from dormant accounts to be made available for good causes, also received CBEs.
Nicholas Coleridge, chair of the Victoria and Albert Museum, was knighted. He was in the news last month after claims he had offered a private tour of the museum as a prize in an auction to raise funds for the Conservative Party.
Ann Limb, former chair of the Scout Association, was made a dame for services to young people and philanthropy.
OBEs went to people including Jo Youle, chief executive of Missing People; Nick Capaldi, former chief executive of the Arts Council of Wales; Joyce Fraser, founder of the Black Heroes Foundation; Catherine Howarth, chief executive of the responsible investment charity ShareAction; and SallyAnn Kelly, chief executive of the children’s charity Aberlour Child Care Trust.
The same honour was also awarded to Martyn Butler and Rupert Whitaker, co-founders of the HIV and sexual health charity the Terrence Higgins Trust; Jane Byam Shaw, co-founder of the food redistribution charity The Felix Project; Sabir Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council; Dave Moutrey, director and chief executive of the arts venue Home Manchester; and Samantha Ward, deputy chief executive of the Royal Voluntary Service.
There were MBEs for Seb Elsworth, chief executive of Access – The Foundation for Social Investment; James Banks, chief executive of London Funders; Sandra Burns, chief executive of Disability Peterborough; Safia Jama, chief executive of Women’s Inclusive Team; Kevan Liles, chief executive of Voluntary Action Leicestershire; and Clea Harmer, chief executive of the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands.
The same honour went to people including Patrick Peal, former chief executive of East Anglian Air Ambulance; Ailsa Rhodes, chief executive of Older People's Action in the Locality; Lynne Sanders, chief executive of Swansea Women's Aid; Kenneth Simpson, chief executive of Voluntary Services Aberdeen; and Caro Howell, director of the Foundling Museum.
Among the scores of individuals to receive a British Empire Medal for their voluntary sector work is Patricia Anne Husselbee, from Newport, Gwent, who has provided 64 years of service to the Royal British Legion.
The 11-year-old twins Elena and Ruben Evans-Guillen, from Warrington, Cheshire, receive the same honour for raising almost £50,000 for the NHS and NHS-related charities over the past three years. They are the youngest people on this year’s list.
The Cabinet Office said 1,134 people were given awards, of whom 59 per cent had “undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity”. This is down from almost two-thirds last year.
