New Year honours for Norfolk people

Household names Sir Nicholas Bacon and artist Maggi Hambling are among a long list of East Anglians recognised in the New Year's honours list, announced today.

Sir Nicholas, who runs the 5,500 acre Raveningham Estate near Norwich, is made an OBE for services to the community in Norfolk.

A friend of the Prince of Wales, England's premier baronet has occupied a number of important national positions whilst always retaining his close association with Norfolk.

He was president of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association last year and was elected chairman of the RNAA's ruling council in January. In 2005 he was high sheriff of Norfolk is president of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, chairman of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, chairman of the Norfolk Partnership against Crime Taskforce and patron of the Assembly House.

He led a successful �1.1m appeal for a major project for new facilities at Easton College where he is chairman of governors.

Suffolk painter and sculptor Ms Hambling is made a CBE for services to art. She is best known for her Controversial Britten Enterprise - a much-visited and often-vandalised Scallop tribute to the Lowestoft-born composer on Aldeburgh beach.

Born in Sudbury in 1945, she studied from 15 at the excellent and eccentric Hadleigh art school run by Lett Haines and Cedric Morris, and later in Ipswich.

Ms Hambling, 64, said her honour was recognition for the arts and suggested that the Queen had “recognised the Scallop”.

She said: “I'm delighted. It's always a bit of a shock when you get the one of those letters, but it's an important recognition of the the place of the arts in society.

“I feel very strongly that it may be food that feeds the stomach but art feeds the spirit in any kind of place that calls itself civilised and the importance cannot be overestimated.”

Others who received New Year's honours include:

Deborah Chedgey, manager of the Norwich-based Matrix Project, is made an MBE for services to disadvantaged people.

For the past 13 years she has been a central figure in the running of two NHS funded schemes, the first dealing with drug addiction and the main scheme, the Matrix Project, dealing with sex workers.

As manager of the Matrix Project, she leads a small team of five delivering harm reduction services to sex workers in Norwich and further a field.

Mrs Chedgey, 52, said: “The most important aspect of our job is engaging with men and women who would lead chaotic lives; that first engagement can be key.

“I love my job and it is enormously rewarding, whether it is seeing an individual tackle their drug problem or leave the sex industry altogether. The MBE is recognition not just for me, but for the whole team.”

In the last three years she has extended the service into prisons, also supporting the police in raids on suspected human traffickers and in developing intelligence links between sex workers and the police.

The project has created an openness and understanding between sex workers and the police and she has been approached by three other counties for advice in founding similar projects.

Since 2001 she has also led the Contact NR5 drugs service which provides a range of drug services to people in the NR5 postcode of Norwich.

Lyn Hill, an admin manager from the Health and Safety Executive, was awarded an MBE in the New Year's honours for her work with the Health and Safety Executive and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mrs Hill, who works HSE's Norwich offices, joined Britain's safety at work regulator in 1972 and has dealt with a series of big projects in the Eastern region.

Most recently, she devised a new way of supporting inspectors investigating serious and fatal workplace accidents - saving the department considerable amounts of time and money.

She said: “I do feel very honoured to receive the MBE. I have worked with a lot of fantastic people over the years and am proud to be part of an organisation that is helping to reduce the number of people killed, injured or made ill by their work.”

She is married with two daughters and one granddaughter, and lives in Drayton.

Tim O'Riordan, emeritus professor of environmental sciences at UEA, is made an OBE for services to sustainable development.

Over the past 40 years Prof O'Riordan has been a hard voice to ignore as an advocate for a more sustainable future.

He has edited a number of books on the institutional aspects of global environmental policy and practice, and lead two EU research projects looking forward to a transition to sustainability.

Closer to home he has campaigned actively for the preservation of the Norfolk Broads, and was chairman of Environment Committee for the Broads Authority.

Since retiring from his role as professor of environmental sciences at UEA in 2005 he has continued to keep his voice heard as an active member of Sustainable Development Commission until last year, and is the current Sheriff of Norwich.

He has also been a member of the Norfolk and Suffolk Local Flood Defence Committee and was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy in 1999.

Prof O'Riordan said: “This is a very distinguished honour. I have committed myself to my work for the last 40 years and I've been very active.

“An OBE is a culmination of a lot of things that people do and is given to them at the end of their work - this is my moment and I am very honoured.”

John Drake, the former chief executive of YMCA Norfolk is made an MBE for his services to young people.

Former Sheriff of Norwich Mr Drake, 63, who lives in Thorpe St Andrew, stepped down from his role with the YMCA in the summer, after 30 years with the county's Christian association.

His life experiences encompass everything from a stint in an African leper colony to being bombed out of the YMCA central office in London by the IRA.

Manchester-born Mr Drake moved to Norwich in 1978 and helped oversee the opening of the new YMCA building near Norwich's bus station.

Ann Barrett, Emeritus Professor of Oncology at the University of East Anglia, former deputy dean of the school of medicine and lead clinician for oncology at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is made an OBE for services to healthcare.

While at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, Prof Barrett produced the first technique for whole body irradiation as the earliest bone marrow transplants were carried out.

She worked closely with Dame Janet Husband and Dr Jane Dobbs on the use of CT scanning in cancer and radiotherapy treatment planning - at a time when those techniques were very new.

With Dr Dobbs she produced a textbook called Practical Radiotherapy Planning, a fourth edition of which was published in June this year.

Prof Barrett, who lives in Pulham Market, arrived in Norfolk in 1986, following a spell as chair of oncology at Glasgow's Beatson Oncology Centre, the second largest cancer centre in the UK.

She came to Norwich to set up the new medical school under the leadership of dean Professor Sam Leinster, helping develop of new curriculum for the students.

Prof Barrett has served on several government commissions and groups including most recently, the National Radiotherapy Advisory Group, which contributed to the Cancer Reform Strategy.

She was Registrar and then Vice President of the Royal College of Radiologists, president of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, an active member of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology and a trustee of the Big C cancer charity, with particular responsibility for the Big C Family Information and Support Centre.

She said: “I have had really good colleagues throughout my career who have been great to work with and very supportive. This might have come to me, but it reflects the excellent teams I have worked with.

“My time in Norfolk was the latter period of my career, but I have had a fantastic time here. Helping set up the medical school was enormously exciting.

“The things you remember are the people you work with and the patients you treat. I remember getting a bunch of flowers from the mother of somebody I had treated when they were three. The flowers were on the occasion of his 21st birthday, and that was a wonderful feeling.”

Four weeks after arriving in Norfolk from her native Germany, Waltraud Krall was introduced to the Jarrold family.

She fell in love and married Richard Jarrold and while Norwich became her adopted city she still retained strong links with home - and was instrumental in creating a twinning with Koblenz, which became a reality in April 1978.

Mrs Jarrold, who lives in Cringleford, has been involved with many groups and organisations including the Norwich and Norfolk branch of the Meningitis Trust and the Feed the Minds book fair, which helps educate underprivileged people around the world.

She was made an MBE for services to the community in Norwich.

Bernard Godding, 68, was made an MBE for voluntary service to adult learning and the Educational Centres Association (ECA), based in Ivy Road, Norwich.

Mr Godding, who is originally from south London, became Norfolk County Council's head of adult education for central Norfolk in 1979 - a job he continued until 1997.

He then joined ECA, a practice-based organisation formed after the first world war which is concerned with adult education and lifelong learning and works internationally as well as in this country.

Speaking of his MBE he said: “The only way I think anyone is able to achieve this sort of public recognition is because of the people that work alongside them and I have worked with some fantastic people and brilliant teams.”

Father of one Mr Godding, who lives in Eaton, paid tribute to his wife Naomi, who is treasurer of ECA, and will be accompanying him when he becomes an MBE.

A woman who has contributed to community life for more than three decades has been honoured by being made an MBE.

Roslyn Whitwell, parish clerk of Hardingham, near Dereham, who has been involved in many aspects of village life over the years including more recently setting up a new youth club, was delighted to take her husband, Peter and granddaughters, Emily and Katherine, to Buckingham Palace where she was presented with her honour by the Queen.

When the investiture was held the Queen inquired where Hardingham was and Mrs Whitwell said it was south-west of Norwich and 45 miles from Sandringham. Her reply brought a smile to the Queen's face.

“It was such an honour to meet and have a few words with the Queen. It is wonderful to think that somebody thinks so highly of you to nominate you for such an honour,” she said.

Mrs Whitwell, who has two sons, Terry and Timothy and a daughter, Lesley, has lived in Norfolk for 33 years and been Hardingham's parish clerk for nine years.

She has also been involved in community life and headed the team that staged the annual village fete.

Mrs Whitwell is the sort of person who, if she sees a need for a new club or group, she sets about starting one and, after getting it established, tends to take a step back.

When she was cleaning graffiti off the village bus shelter she noticed that the word “bored” had been written on it several times. She then talked to youngsters when they got off the bus and they said there was nothing for them to do and so she helped set up the Chill Out Club.

Diane Poole, general manager of Norfolkline Irish Sea Ferry Services, made an MBE for services to the tourist industry; and Jean McEwen made an MBE for services to the community in Norwich.

Thomas Morris, from King's Lynn, was made an MBE for his services to the NHS and the community in Dersingham.

The Royal Victorian Medal was given to Anthony Hardingham, a tractor driver on the Sandringham Estate, and Patricia Earl, a housekeeper at Sandringham House.