6 Saturday January 1 2022 | the times
News
Laura and Jason Kenny, the cyclists
who broke successive records at the
Tokyo Olympics, have notched up
another one, becoming the first couple
to be honoured with a damehood and
knighthood at the same time.
They joined athletes and celebrities
recognised in the new year’s honours
list, along with Joanna Lumley, Daniel
Craig and Emma Raducanu.
Jason, 33, became Britain’s most
successful Olympian when he won a
seventh gold in Tokyo to move clear of
Sir Chris Hoy, his former team-mate,
while Laura, 29, extended her record as
the country’s most successful woman,
collecting her fifth gold and a silver
medal to boot.
The gold medallists Hannah Cock-
roft, the wheelchair racer, Tom Daley,
the diver, Adam Peaty, the swimmer,
and Max Whitlock, the gymnast, were
among others from the summer Games
to be recognised with OBEs, while Ra-
ducanu, the US Open tennis champion,
has been appointed an MBE.
She was the first British woman to
win a grand slam since Virginia Wade in
1977 and the first qualifier of any na-
tionality to do so.
Raducanu, 19, said: “It makes me im-
mensely proud and grateful to be listed
to receive an MBE from Her Majesty
the Queen. This year has been full of
amazing surprises for me so to end 2021
with this appointment is very special.”
Daley, 27, who won his first gold
medal at his fourth Games has been
recognised with an OBE for services to
his sport, LGBTQ+ rights and charity.
Lumley has been appointed a dame.
The actress, 75, best known for her role
Health chiefs leading the fight against
Covid-19 have been recognised in the
new year’s honours after some names
were deliberately left off a year ago.
Chris Whitty, England’s chief medi-
cal officer, and his deputy Jonathan
Van-Tam are both knighted, as are their
counterparts in Wales and Scotland,
Frank Atherton and Gregor Smith.
Dr Jenny Harries, head of the UK
Health Security Agency, and Dr June
Raine, chief executive of the Medicines
and Healthcare products Regulatory
Agency, are given damehoods. Sir Pat-
rick Vallance, the government’s chief
scientific adviser, who was knighted
three years ago, is elevated to a Knight
Commander of the Order of the Bath.
Nearly one in five of the awards are
Covid-related service. In the Queen’s
birthday honours in 2020, which were
not announced until October that year,
the committee withheld some awards
because of controversy about the hand-
ling of the pandemic. However, this
year a Cabinet Office source said “the
time had come” to recognise some of
the people at a senior level.
Vallance said: “I am really pleased to
see so many outstanding scientists and
engineers recognised in this year’s hon-
inside today
New year honours list in full
Pages 72-
am honoured and delighted to be rec-
ognised on behalf of the army of dedi-
cated and hardworking staff and volun-
teers who have delivered the biggest
and most successful vaccination pro-
gramme in health service history.”
Other NHS staff recognised include
consultants, GPs, nurses, midwives and
pharmacists, as well as 85-year-old
Jimmy Chapman, a porter at the Lis-
burn Health Centre in Co Down.
He was so surprised when he re-
ceived the notification of his British
Empire Medal that he first thought the
letter was a court summons. “It is theSports stars and
celebrities lead
the awards pack
Valentine Low as Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous as
well as championing causes including
the plight of Gurkha pensioners, has
been honoured for services to drama,
entertainment and charitable causes.
“I am astonished and thrilled and
touched beyond words to receive this
colossal honour,” she said. “It comes as
a complete and unexpected surprise.”
In a rare instance of the honours
committee showing a sense of humour
Daniel Craig, who made his last appear-
ance as James Bond in No Time To Die,
has been made a Companion of the
Order of St Michael and St George, the
honour given to the fictional 007. It is
usually given to diplomats, not actors.
Before the release of the film last
year, Craig, 53, was made an honorary
commander in the Royal Navy, another
rank his film character held.
In other 007-themed awards, Barba-
ra Broccoli, 61, the producer of the Bond
films, has been appointed CBE for ser-
vices to drama, philanthropy and skills,
as has Anthony Horowitz, the author.
Horowitz, best known for his Alex Rid-
er books, has written two Bond novels
with a third due in spring.
Bernie Taupin, 71, the songwriter
known for his collaboration with Sir
Elton John, has been appointed a CBE.
Taupin wrote the lyrics for some of
John’s greatest hits including Rocket-
man and Candle In The Wind.
Martin Lewis, the consumer cham-
pion who has been appointed a CBE for
services to broadcasting, said that he al-
most missed out after Buckingham Pal-
ace sent his nomination to an old ad-
dress. The founder of the website Mon-
eySavingExpert said: “I knew some
people had nominated me but it was
way past the time when you’re sup-
posed to receive a letter. I then
found out they had sent the let-
ter to an old address and when
I hadn’t responded they got in
touch, so I was properly gob-
smacked.”
Ashley Banjo, 33, the
dancer in Diversity, the Brit-
ain’s Got Talent winners, has
been appointed an MBE for
services to dance. In Septem-
ber 2020, his group grabbed
the headlines with a routine
on the ITV show, in which a
man in police uniform knelt
on Banjo, echoing the killing
of George Floyd.
It caused more than 24,
complaints to Ofcom, but the
TV watchdog concluded that
the routine’s “central message
was a call for social cohesion”.
The performance won the
Must-See Moment Award at the
2021 TV Baftas.
Melanie Brown, 46, Mel B of the
Spice Girls, has been appointed an
MBE for her work with Women’s Aid,
the domestic violence charity.
Pauline Black, 68, singer with the in-
fluential 2-tone band The Selecter, has
been appointed OBE.
June Brown, 94, the actress who
plays Dot Cotton in EastEnders, is ap-
pointed an OBE in recognition for ser-
vices to drama and to charity.
The director Paul Greengrass, whose
films include United 93 and Captain
Phillips, has been appointed CBE, while
John Boorman, who made films includ-
ing Hope and Glory and The Tailor of
Panama, has been made a knight.
Claudia Roden, the cookery writer, is
appointed a CBE.Recognition for fight against Covid
ours, including those that have been
working tirelessly as part of the
response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Smith is a GP who was Scotland’s
deputy chief medical officer until April
2020, when he took over from Dr Cath-
erine Calderwood who resigned after
photos appeared showing her breaking
travel rules to visit her second home.
The head of the NHS Covid vaccina-
tion programme, Dr Emily Lawson,
was awarded a damehood. She said: “Ifirst award I have ever got,” he said.
Sir Paul Nurse, head of the Francis
Crick Institute, was given an award but
very nearly snubbed the Queen — for
the second time. Somehow, the letter
offering to make him a Companion of
Honour was mislaid. It wasn’t until
Downing Street got in touch to ask
whether he would accept that he learnt
he had been offered the award, for ser-
vices to science, and said yes.
In 1999 when a letter arrived offering
him a knighthood his wife put it “in the
pile” with other junk mail because she
was suspicious of the note on the front
that said “Urgent: from the Prime Min-
ister.” He said: “We were always being
asked for money from the Labour
Party.”
Nurse has turned over the institute’s
PCR machines to testing. “We sup-
ported ten North London hospitals and
150 care homes. For a while, because we
set it up so quickly, we were a very sig-
nificant triple contributor to overall
national testing when it was simply,
frankly, a shambles elsewhere.”
6 Steve Murrells, chief executive of the
Co-op, and Roger Burnley, who was
chief executive of Asda until August,
have been given CBEs for helping to
keep shelves stocked during the pan-
demic.Valentine Low
Actress accepts award
after ‘snub’ 20 years ago
Vanessa Redgrave has accepted a
damehood more than 20 years after
allegedly turning it down in
opposition to Tony Blair’s
government. The actress, 84, who is
appointed a Dame Commander of
the Order of the British Empire for
services to drama, said: “I’m
surprised and grateful to join this
wondrous group of British artists
whose work has inspired me and
audiences the world over. My
generation fought for freedom of
expression. Long may this remain.”
Redgrave won an Oscar for best
supporting actress in the 1977 film
Julia. She said in 2002 that she
would have difficulty “in receiving
anything that says British Empire”.Schoolboy honoured for
600 nights under canvas
Two schoolboys are the youngest
honours recipients on record after
receiving British Empire medals for
their pandemic fundraising efforts.
Max Woosey, 12, from Braunton,
North Devon, has raised more than
£700,000 for his local hospice by
camping outside every night since
March 2020 in memory of his
neighbour who died from cancer. His
parents are hoping he will start
sleeping inside again when he
completes two years of camping.
Tobias Weller, 11, from Sheffield,
who has cerebral palsy and autism,
was inspired by Captain Sir Tom
Moore and has raised £157,000 for
children’s charities by taking on
physical challenges of his own.News New year honours
Sheila Parker, first
captain of the England
women’s football
team, is made an MBEDaniel Craig is made a
CMG, the same honour
held by James Bond,
his on-screen alter egoEmma Raducanu, the
first British woman to
win a grand slam since
1977, is made an MBE