EX-PM Brown ‘embarrassed’ at Companion of Honour title
FORMER prime minister Gordon Brown said he feels “slightly embarrassed” to receive an award in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Mr Brown heads a long list of Scots recognised in this year’s list, which includes satirist Armando Iannucci, National Theatre of Scotland chief Jane Spiers, ex-rangers star Ally Mccoist, and 81-year-old grandmother Myrna Bernard, who spent years helping Holocaust survivors.
Award-winning historian Professor Sir Niall Ferguson, receives a knighthood.
Glasgow-born Sir Niall, whose 16 books include The Pity Of War and The Ascent Of Money: A Financial History Of The World, first came to the attention of many in the UK with the hit 2003 Channel 4 series Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World, and a best-selling book of the same name.
Mr Brown has been made a Companion of Honour, a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine or government over a long period of time.
This is awarded for service of conspicuous national importance and is limited to 65 people. Recipients are entitled to put the initials CH after their name.
Mr Brown said: “I feel slightly embarrassed as the opportunity to serve is an honour in itself and my preference has always been to recognise all those brilliant, unsung, local heroes who quietly and selflessly give their time to contribute to the vitality of our communities.
“I want to thank those who put my name forward and thank, too, my family and all who have worked with me during the last 50 years in public life to whom I owe everything.”
Armando Iannucci has said he will take becoming a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) as a signal to keep defending public broadcasters from “attacks on independence and funding”.
Jane Spiers, chairwoman of the board of the National Theatre of Scotland, is made an OBE (Officer of the British Empire). In a career in the arts spanning more than 40 years, she has been a producer, programmer, festival director, event manager and cultural
policy adviser. She said: “I’m still pinching myself. I feel so fortunate to have spent a lifetime working in the arts and now to be given an honour for doing something I love.”
Mrs Bernard, from Newton Mearns,
East Renfrewshire, was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the Jewish community and to the disabled in Scotland.
She volunteered with the charity Jewish Care Scotland for many years before training at what was then North Glasgow College as a social care worker, graduating with distinction at the age of 59.
Mrs Bernard continued working with Jewish Care for around a decade and then found a job working for the Association of Jewish Refugees, which helps support Holocaust survivors, many of whom came to the UK on the Kindertransport.
She worked for the organisation until she retired last November, aged 81.
She said: “You can’t stand back or be disinterested in them as individuals because they each had remarkable stories to tell.
“Some were treated well when they arrived, some were not treated well, some did very well in their future lives, some just jogged along – but they were all very glad as they got older to have someone they could talk to, someone they could trust to look out for them.”
Others named in the Birthday Honours list include John Beveridge, 71, who has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to paddle steamer preservation and charity.
Mr Beveridge helped restore the Waverley steamer and hopes to achieve the same success with the Maid Of The Loch on Loch Lomond.
Gerald Lobley, 79, from Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, was also made an MBE for services to chess in Scotland for instructing future generations how to play the game.
He has spent 50 years teaching youngsters how to play chess and said he was “flabbergasted” to learn he has been honoured by the King.
Ultra-runner Jasmin Paris receives an MBE for services to fell and long-distance Running. The 40-year-old, from Gorebridge, Midlothian, has completed some of the toughest and most gruelling races around the world.
An MBE also goes to Hannah Beaton-hawryluk, 63, who gave up her job to help the humanitarian response to the invasion of Ukraine. She receive the honour for services to the Ukrainian community in Scotland.
In the world of sport, Stephen Gallacher becomes an MBE for services to golf, while former Rangers and Scotland striker and now pundit Mccoist is made an OBE for services to football and broadcasting.
Former Open and Masters champion Sandy Lyle becomes an OBE for services to golf, while ex-scotland, Liverpool and Rangers midfielder Graeme Souness is made a CBE.
Souness, 71, says he is “delighted and humbled” by the honour.
He represented Scotland at three World Cups and won five league titles and three European Cups with Liverpool, as well as league titles with Rangers, but the honour also recognises his service and support to charity. He is a vice-president of Debra UK, which raises awareness of epidermolysis bullosa, a group of incredibly painful genetic skin blistering conditions.
Robert Forman, a former chairman of the Scottish Conservatives becomes a CBE for political service. He said the honour was a “great privilege”
Professor Moira Whyte, the Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, becomes a Dame for services to medical research.