Wiltshire stalwarts celebrate New Year honours

They include father-of-two Ian Smith who spearheaded Ramsbury’s go it alone struggle to create a sports centre which has become the envy of other villages around.

Mr Smith, 54, a semi-retired solicitor, has been made an MBE for services to the community.

His wife Lois is also a lawyer, their daughter Vicki is training to become one and their son Simon is taking a masters degree.

Mr Smith moved to Ramsbury about 30 years ago and in 1982 was elected chairman of the village sports club.

He later became part of a group called Project 2005 set up in 2003 with the aim of developing the club.

Project 2005 has raised about £900,000 to create all-year round facilities for tennis, cricket, football, netball and, most recently, bowls.

Most of the money was raised by villagers themselves, with much of it coming from the annual Ramsbury Balls held in a marquee at the sports centre.

“We have done it largely ourselves,” said Mr Smith who plays tennis and who is considering taking up bowls on the new green.

He said that Project 2005 involved not only himself but also a large number of other villagers and that the honour was for the whole village.

Mark Wilkinson, 59, who overcame severe dyslexia to become one of the foremost furniture designers in the country, has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours list.

Mr Wilkinson who, with his wife Cynthia was until recently a director of Bromham-based Mark Wilkinson Furniture, has been recognised for services to the furniture industry and to charity.

He is delighted with the award and says he only wishes his old headmaster was around to hear the news.

He said: “I feel quite elated. It is fantastic really.

“I wish my headmaster, who told me how useless I was, was alive so I could tell him how wrong he was.

“What a great country Britain is where a dyslexic kid from a council estate, who was written off as a waste of taxpayers’ money, can be recognised in this way.

“I tell my students at the course I teach at the University of the West of England how vile, violent, brutal environments create violent, brutalised people.

“As designers we have a responsibility to create environments that help people be better than that.”

Mr Wilkinson has many awards for his support of training, particularly of young people with special needs.

In April he was invested with the Fellowship of the City and Guilds Institute for his support of skills training and in July he got the medal of the Order of the League of Mercy for his support of the specialist charity Dyslexia Action.

Children's author and illustrator Lauren Child, who was brought up in Wiltshire, has been awarded an MBE.

The creator of the Charlie and Lola series established a vivid world of moonsquirters, dancing dogs and hunky Uncle Ted which has made her a household name for families with young children.

She has been awarded her honour for services to literature.

Mrs Child was brought up in Marlborough, the daughter of an art teacher. After studying art, her eye for design enabled her to set up a company designing lampshades and she also worked as a studio assistant for Damien Hirst.

Her move into children's literature followed a discussion with an adviser who suggested she should produce a book then design a product range around it.

Although it took a lengthy period to find a publisher, her first book Clarice Bean, That's Me won instant recognition on the Smarties Prize shortlist when it went into print a decade ago.

Her book I Will Not Ever, Never Eat a Tomato - which featured her brother and sister characters Charlie and Lola - won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal two years later.

The stories were given a wider audience when they were adapted for an animated BBC programme which ran for three series.

Earlier this year Mrs Child signed a £1m deal for new books based on the undercover agent Ruby Redfort who appears in her Clarice Bean novels.

Mary Stevens, who has lived in Devizes with her husband John, a former Mayor of Swindon, for nearly ten years, has been made an MBE for services to Swindon.

Mrs Stevens, 75, who lives in Drews Park Village, said she was surprised and delighted to receive the letter announcing her honour.

She said: “It came completely out of the blue. I don’t know who has nominated me for this. I am completely nonplussed.”

Mrs Stevens served as a magistrate in Swindon for 25 years and has been a member of the social care committee of Voluntary Action Swindon since 1976, including some years as chairman.

She was also president of the Swindon Guides and Scouts Gang Show for 20 years.

Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott is among those to be honoured in the Queen’s New Year Honours List. Mrs Scott, who is made an OBE for services to local government, led the county council from 2003 until this year’s transition to a unified council. She said: “I am as pleased as I am surprised to receive this honour which I regard as being one for Wiltshire, our lovely county.

“It has been a very good year for Wiltshire’s Council and I wish I could share this award with all the officers and members who have supported me in my 15 years in local government.”

Mrs Scott was elected to the Wiltshire District Council in 1995, before which she pursued a career in agriculture and public relations. The mother-of-three is councillor for the newly created district of By Brook which includes Biddestone, Hullavington and Castle Combe.

Deputy leader of Wiltshire Council John Thompson said: “She has a huge capacity for work, not just at the local level but also raising the profile of Wiltshire nationally.”

He said Wiltshire is now regarded as a county where things get done and it was important to have a high profile leader. “More and more we have to persuade the Government to support projects and make bids for funding,” he said.

Other Wiltshire people to be honoured include: OBE Diana Fulbrook, chief officer, Wiltshire Probation Area, Ministry of Justice; Richard Kitson of Warminster and former chief executive of the Aster Group for services to housing.

MBE Richard Gagan Ministry of Defence; Peter Brantford Hartland for services to the community in Ashton Keynes; Virginia Pickering Keen of Malmesbury for services to the community; Marian McNeir of Bradford on Avon for services to the community; Anthony Michael Hurst Rumsey, collections manager National Monuments Record, for services to photography; Cherryl Lynn Sawyer, business and development director Threshold Housing Link, for services to homeless people; Doreen Willcocks for services to netball and to Pinehurst, Swindon.