Community heroes and Olympic stars from across the region make the New Year’s honours list
Neville Pettitt gets a BEM in the New Years honours list for teaching hundreds of youngsters to ride bicycles - Credit: Gregg Brown
Regional heroes who go the extra mile to improve their communities, educators, innovators and charity fundraisers are among those to receive a New Year honour.
Mike Carr, from Bury St Edmunds, has received an OBE for services to innovation - Credit: Archant
They are joined on the list by Olympic yachting gold medalist Saskia Clark from Mersea Island who has been awarded the MBE at the end of the year that finally saw her standing on top of the podium at Rio before retiring from the sport at the very top.
A total of 11 people from Suffolk have made the list for their dedication to making Britain a better place to live.
Professor Barry Ife, principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, who lives near Woodbridge, receives a knighthood for services to performing arts education.
Over the past 12 years he has turned the school into the country’s largest provider of music education to under 18s, incorporating the Centre for Young Musicians and creating new music centres in Norfolk and Essex.
Jill Smith has received an MBE for services to Guiding and community in Great Glemham - Credit: Gregg Brown
Mike Carr, 61, who lived in Trimley St Martin for 27 years before moving near Bury St Edmunds, receives a OBE for services to innovation.
Mr Carr spent a large chunk of his career working for BT and recently joined the Government’s Innovate UK board. He is a non-executive director of Ordnance Survey and deputy president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
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He said: “I was totally astounded when I got the news.”
Karen Brock, from Nedging, who heads the Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service receives an MBE for her contribution to education.
MBE recipient Richard Delderfield who is honourary president of Bloodwise charity - Credit: Gregg Brown
Ten years ago she launched the service with just a desk and a telephone - now it helps more than 11,500 youngsters in London play a musical instrument.
She said: “I felt really honoured and humbled when I found out I was to receive the award.”
After his son died from acute myeloid leukaemia in 1985 at the age of 17, Suffolk fundraiser Richard Delderfield was determined to turn the traumatic and heartbreaking situation into a positive.
The 73-year-old honorary president of Bloodwise, formally known as Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, has given more than 30 years to the blood cancer research charity.
Lucia Watson, from Ipswich, has received an British Empire Medal for her services to charity - Credit: Archant
Mr Delderfield, from Long Melford, has been awarded an MBE for services to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
Jill Smith, of Great Glemham near Saxmundham, has received an MBE for services to guiding having devoted more than 40 years to the Girl Guide movement.
Mrs Smith, 77, led a number of Brownie and Guide groups in east Suffolk, becoming division president in 1997, and has spent a decade organising charity fundraisers.
Lucia Watson, who lives in Belstead Road in Ipswich, has dedicated 30 years to raising money for charity since moving to Suffolk from Switzerland 50 years ago. She receives a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to charity.
Karen Brock, from Nedging, has been awarded an MBE for services to education. - Credit: Archant
She was one of the founding members of Ipswich soup kitchen and helped establish the town’s branch of Unicef, raising more than £140,000 for the children’s charity.
Suffolk cyclist Neville Pettitt, 62, has been awarded a BEM for services to cycling and youth participation.
The chairman of the West Suffolk Wheelers, based in Bury St Edmunds, Mr Pettitt has helped hundreds of youngsters get on their bikes. He also helps teach pupils with severe learning difficulties at Priory School in Bury.
Andrew Butt will receive a British Empire Medal for his services to public safety.
John Gosden has received an OBE for services to horse racing and training.
Mr Butt is the National Offender Management Service’s divisional lead for heath, safety and fire for the national probation service and has dedicated almost 27 years in the voluntary sector.
Isabel Jane Green, from Dalham near Newmarket, also receives the British Empire Medal.
She has dedicated 27 years supporting St Mary the Virgin Church in Dalham. Most recently she raised £100,000 after lead thieves stripped most of the roof from the church in 2014.
John Gosden, from Newmarket, has been awarded an OBE for services to horseracing and training. He has had a prestigious career with a strong track record, winning more than 3,000 races around the world including more than 100 Group 1 races.
Caroline Miller, from Bury St Edmunds, has been awarded an OBE for her services to the arts. She previously served as the director of One Dance UK, standing down in March this year.
