2014 New Year's Honours: Who received what

OXFORDSHIRE’s Chief Fire Officer praised colleagues past and present after he received an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

David Etheridge, 48, is the first Chief Fire Officer in the country to have become head of the same service that he first joined as a firefighter.

He said: “I was absolutely flabbergasted when I opened the letter from the Cabinet Office and read it.

“I really do accept this award on behalf of all the members of the fire and rescue service past and present, both uniformed and non-uniformed who have helped shape the service.”

Mr Etheridge joined the service in 1986 and has been Chief Fire Officer since June 2010, having previously been the station manager of Slade Park Fire Station in Oxford and the city’s fire risk manager. 

He was first stationed in Abingdon, where he still lives with wife Rachel and sons Karl, 25, and Lewis, 20.Since 2006 he has led the 365alive safety campaign, which has been backed by the Oxford Mail since its launch.

The county council claims the programme has saved the taxpayer £100m, by cutting the number of incidents crews were called to.

Mr Etheridge said: “Since I joined the service the biggest change without a doubt is that in those days we would wait until we got a 999 call.

“It was just accepted in the past that fires occurred but now we are a preventative agency.

“The highlights from a personal point of view have been when I was appointed as a firefighter and then when I was appointed Chief Fire Officer, which at the time I thought was the peak of my career. The OBE really is the icing on the cake.”

SHILLINGFORD resident John Lubbock has received an OBE for services to the Orchestra of St John’s and people with autism and learning difficulties in the UK.

The 69-year-old founded the orchestra in 1967 and in 2002 his wife Christine Cairns founded the charity Music for Autism which saw the orchestra start performing for children at special schools across the UK.

Mr Lubbock, whose 21-year-old son Alexander has autism, spends 50 days a year putting on the concerts.

He said: “The OBE was a complete surprise, I have no idea who nominated me for it.

“I set the orchestra up when I was a student at the Royal Academy and I sang in a group so it just all happened from there.

“It is an award for the players. I wish it could be for all of them but it has to be given to someone and that person is me.”

• Stuart Mark Griffiths. Chief executive Birmingham Hippodrome. For services to the arts in Birmingham. (Eynsham)
• Professor Venugopal Karunakaran Nair. Head of Avian Viral Diseases Programme Pirbright Institute. For services to Science. (Kidlington)
• John Stuart Rhodes. For services to the economy, planning and the community. (Oxfordshire)

OF those given awards for services to the Oxfordshire community, Chalgrove man Kenneth Batley is the longest serving.

The 88-year-old was made an MBE 57 years after he first served on the town’s parish council.

Mr Batley has lived in the same Brookside house for 55 years with his wife Joan, and has been vice-chairman of Chalgrove Parish Council since 1991.

He was a founder member of the local history group in 1973 and was a justice of the peace of the Watlington Bench between 1976 and 1996.

He has also been a trustee of Chalgrove Scouts and Age Concern for a number of years and since 1989 has been chairman of the Chalgrove Amateur Dramatic Society.

Mr Batley said: “It’s an award to Chalgrove, not to me. It’s an award for the local community.

“It’s a fabulous community that people want to be a part of. It’s a community of caring and wonderful people.”

THE woman who ensured the Olympic torch passed smoothly through Oxford before the 2012 Summer games has been made an MBE.

Oxfordshire County Council streetworks manager Katherine Powley mapped out the route for the torch and made sure pedestrians and spectators could watch the event safely.

The 52-year-old from Abingdon, who is a member of the board of directors of seven Oxfordshire academies, said: “It is a real honour to be made an MBE and I am very proud.

My parents were both teachers and brought me up on the idea of providing a service to the community and it is something that I am extremely passionate about.

“I could not do what I do without the fantastic support of my county council colleagues and being made an MBE is the result of a real team effort.”

DR BARBARA Hammond has been made an MBE for her services to community energy development.

The 53-year-old Osney Island resident has been chairwoman of the Low Carbon Hub since 2010.

The Hub aims to allow communities across the county to become renewable energy providers rather than relying on big energy companies.

Corpus Christi College graduate Dr Hammond said: “When I got involved with the Low Carbon Hub after the 2007 floods, we thought it would be good if there was something in the county to help out communities.

“The result was the Low Carbon Hub and now we have 24 communities which are members.

“That someone has nominated me makes me very proud and it is a big endorsement and recognition of the Low Carbon Hub.”

• Eileen Valerie Davison. Lead Scientist, West Midlands. For services to Genomic Technologies. (Mollington)
• Dr Heather Mary Elgood. Director postgraduate diploma in Asian Arts, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. For services to higher education and the arts. (Oxfordshire)
• Professor Richard Thomas Ramsden. Formerly professor of Otolaryngology Manchester Royal Infirmary and honorary professor, University of Manchester. For services to Otolaryngology. (Thame)

RAF Brize Norton storekeeper Maurice Warsop has been helping to serve Royal Air Force personnel at the West Oxfordshire base for almost 37 years.

The 54-year-old from Carterton also volunteers for the Royal British Legion branch in the town and has been its standard bearer at Witney’s Remembrance Sunday parade since 2009.

He was awarded the British Empire Medal to recognise his work raising money for the armed forces charity.

The award came in the year the Royal British Legion marked the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, with ceremonies across the country, including the Witney parade which Mr Warsop took part in.

Mr Warsop combines his work at Brize Norton with his volunteering by selling Royal British Legion merchandise to people arriving at the base’s air terminals.

He said: “Our work helps those who can’t help themselves and those who have served their country but need support themselves now.

“We are giving back to those who have given to us.”

He added: “I was surprised when I found out because I didn’t do it for the award.

“I did it to help people.

“I’m just the front person, there are lots of people who have helped me.

“It’s a big operation and I’ll receive it on behalf of all the people who have helped me complete this operation.”

Another military recipient  was Michael Mogridge, from Henley-on-Thames, secretary of the Oxfordshire branch of SSAFA. 
Mr Mogridge was awarded the BEM for voluntary services to the armed forces charity.

IN 1983 Jeanette Howse decided to lift the spirits of Didcot by starting a Christmas street fair in the town.

More than two decades later, the East Hanney resident’s contribution to tourism in Didcot was recognised when she was awarded the British Empire Medal.

Mrs Howse said: “I got the letter saying I had been awarded the BEM on my birthday on November 21.

“My husband Mick was waiting at the door with my cards when I came home and he said ‘I think this one is special.’ At the time the fair started Didcot was a bit of a miserable place to be and it was a way of picking the town up. We closed the roads and put up the stalls and did all the security.

“This is a recognition of how far Didcot has come.”

SINCE being turned into a theatre in 1975, the Wallingford Corn Exchange has become a hub of culture in the South Oxfordshire town.

John Warburton has been at the venue almost every day since to make everything runs smoothly and his dedication was marked when he was awarded the BEM.

He said: “Whilst this is a personal honour I feel it is also an acknowledgement of the work of those who built the Corn Exchange and its reputation of the past 40 years.”

The former marketing and communications manager will celebrate the award with wife Rosamund and sons Tom and Patrick. He said: “I performed myself in the past and when Midsomer Murders first came to film in the area they hired the Corn Exchange and I provided all the local extras to the Corn Exchange for many years.

“It was good for the local community.”

AFTER 20 years organising rugby in Oxfordshire, Paul Murphy has been awarded the BEM for services to the sport.

The 64-year-old played for Oxford, Abingdon, Blue Boar and Oxfordshire before moving into administration.

He was Oxfordshire’s representative on the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Council from 1995 to 2011 and was a member of the RFU Board from 2003 to 2009.

He served as chairman in 2011/12 and president in 2012/13.

Mr Murphy, who is married to Rita and has two daughters, Nicola, 38, and Sara, 35, said: “I would like to underline that I have had tremendous support from many colleagues during my time in the game, and I feel this is acknowledgement of their efforts as much as mine.”

• Paul William Armishaw. For services to the community in Uffington.
• Judith Alison Goodall. For services to the community in Chilton.
• Josephine Mary Graves. Councillor Chipping Norton Town Council. For services to the community. (Chipping Norton)
• Mary Elizabeth Shewry. Manager, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. For services to UK Scientific Research. (Abingdon)

• Professor Andrew Jonathan Bate, CBE, FBA. Literary Scholar and Provost, Worcester College, University of Oxford. For services to Literary Scholarship and Higher Education. (Oxford)

• Professor Sir John Irving Bell, FRS. For services to Medicine Medical Research and the UK Life Science Industry. (Oxfordshire)

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