The highest of honours for Dame Anna Wintour: Vogue editor and author Ian McEwan lead first Birthday Honours of King Charles’s reign – with Vicky McClure and Davina McCall also getting accolades
- Author Martin Amis, who died last month aged 73, was awarded a knighthood
- Several celebrities who were honoured were praised for their charity work
Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour and author Ian McEwan today lead the first Birthday Honours of King Charles’s reign.
The fashion editor and the prize-winning novelist have been given the highest awards in an honours list that celebrates the arts, volunteering and service to the community.
Author Martin Amis, who died from cancer last month aged 73, was awarded a knighthood. Former hostage and author Terry Waite, film director Stephen Frears and Nigerian-born poet and novelist Ben Okri were also given knighthoods.
Several celebrities who were honoured were praised for their campaigning and charity work, including television presenter Davina McCall, Line of Duty star Vicky McClure and former BBC Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce.
American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna and Booker Prize-winner Mr McEwan were made Companions of Honour, alongside Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, who was central to the UK’s Covid response, including the vaccine rollout and national testing programme.
American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour was made a Companion of Honour. She is pictured at the Met Gala in New York, May 2, 2022
Ian McEwan who has been made made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, for services to Literature
The Companion of Honour is given to those who have made an outstanding contribution to national life. There are only ever 65 Companions of Honour. Current holders include Sir David Attenborough and Salman Rushdie.
Charles’s gift to the royal baby doctor
A Doctor who helped to deliver the Prince and Princess of Wales’s three children has been granted a prestigious award in the honours.
ALAN FARTHING, a surgeon-gynaecologist to the Royal Household, was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (RVO) – a personal honour bestowed by the King to people who have served the monarch and the Royal Family.
Mr Farthing, who was engaged to BBC presenter Jill Dando when she was shot dead in 1999, was part of the medical team that supported Kate when she gave birth to Prince George in 2013, Princess Charlotte in 2015 and Prince Louis in 2018.
The King’s RVO honours also included a Royal Victorian Medal for the late Queen’s former hat maker, STELLA McLAREN. And ex-Labour Cabinet minister LORD BOATENG, a former trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, was made a Commander of the RVO.
Mr McEwan, 74, whose novels include Atonement and On Chesil Beach, said the honour was ‘a complete surprise’, adding: ‘I guess it amounts to a really good review.’
Senior honours were also awarded to Sir Simon Gass, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, who advises the Prime Minister on intelligence and was made a Knight Grand Cross, and Richard Moore, head of MI6, who was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.
Geoff Knupfer, a forensic scientist who helped lead the search for the victims of the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and those who ‘disappeared’ during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, was appointed as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.
Martin Amis’s knighthood was discussed with him and he accepted the honour several weeks before his death. His father, novelist Kingsley Amis, was also knighted in 1990. Only gallantry honours are awarded posthumously so Sir Martin’s knighthood was dated a day before his death.
There were also knighthoods for the former BBC director general Mark Thompson, Sky’s executive chairman Jeremy Darroch, and theatre producer Rupert Gavin, former chairman of Historic Royal Palaces. Kathryn McDowell, managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra, was given a damehood.
Actress Celia Imrie, who starred in the Bridget Jones films and Calendar Girls, was awarded a CBE, alongside Scottish actor Kenneth Cranham, who starred in the ITV series Shine On Harvey Moon.
Line Of Duty actress Vicky McClure was awarded an MBE for services to drama and charity following her campaigning dementia work.
Davina McCall was made an MBE following a 20-year television career. She is pictured at the launch photocall for the Masked Dancer, August 30, 2022
Vicky McClure was awarded an MBE for services to drama and charity following her campaigning dementia work. She is pictured at the Brit Awards, February 8, 2022
Davina McCall was also made an MBE following a 20-year television career that has included presenting Big Brother, and a documentary and books about the menopause. She said: ‘I can’t believe it. It really means a great deal.’
Veteran broadcaster Ken Bruce received an MBE for services to radio, autism awareness and charity. His 2009 autobiography detailed his experience raising his autistic son Murray, who is non-verbal, with his wife Kerith. He said: ‘This is a great surprise and privilege. I hope it might help highlight the many difficulties autistic people face.’
In sport, there were CBEs for former Rangers footballer and manager John Greig, and Sarah Hunter, captain of the England Women’s Rugby Union team. Former England and Arsenal footballer-turned-pundit Ian Wright received an OBE for services to football and charity.
More than half of the honours were given to those involved in charity and community work.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: ‘Our honours system has long been a way of recognising people who make an incredible contribution to life in Britain and beyond. I pay tribute to all those recognised.’
From 18 to 106, the local heroes who inspired us
More than 600 community and charity heroes are honoured today in a list that reflects the volunteering themes of the Coronation.
They include retired music teacher and composer Paul Harvey, whose hit single at the age of 80 raised more than £1.5million for dementia charities, after he was diagnosed with dementia. He receives an OBE.
Mr Harvey’s piano composition, Four Notes, went viral after it featured on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House in 2020. It was then released as a single, featuring Mr Harvey with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
The youngest recipient is 18-year-old Junior Jay Frood, from Merseyside, whose campaign against bullying began after he was verbally and physically bullied from the age of six because of his love of dancing.
Now a successful dancer who has appeared on the West End stage and alongside stars including Justin Bieber and Little Mix, Junior created the social media movement #BoysCanDance to support other young male dancers. He receives a British Empire Medal for his work.
Junior said he hoped his ‘crazy honour’ would inspire others to follow their dreams, adding: ‘It shows my voice is being heard, and that the bullies haven’t stopped me.’
The oldest recipient is Joan Willett, 106, who receives a British Empire Medal for raising more than £60,000 for the British Heart Foundation after surviving two heart attacks. She walked more than 17 miles up and down a hill outside her care home in Hastings, East Sussex, after she was inspired by Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Other community awards recognised the response to the war in Ukraine, including an MBE for Alice Good, who founded Sunflower Sisters, a support group for families fleeing the country.
Ms Good, 55, from Northumberland, said she had been inspired to help after seeing a picture of a mother with a child the same age as her six-year-old daughter Molly. The group has helped around 14,000 Ukrainians come to the UK. She also drove to Odesa to deliver aid.
There was also an MBE for Suzanne Richards, whose 19-year-old son Joel, her father Patrick and her brother Adrian were all killed in the 2015 Tunisian beach shootings.
Ms Richards, 54, from Wednesbury in the West Midlands, set up a charity, Smile For Joel, to support other families affected by terrorism and murder. She said the award was bittersweet, adding: ‘It’s lovely, but … I’d change it all if I could and get them back.’
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