King Charles will knight Queen’s Brian May & 4 Lionesses will get gongs in first New Year’s Honours, with 1,000 rewarded
KING Charles is to knight Queen guitarist Brian May in his first New Year’s Honours.
Four Lionesses get gongs following their Euros football triumph — with more than 1,000 people rewarded by His Majesty.
Ex-Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis becomes a Dame.
Sir Brian, guitarist on hits such as We Are The Champions, said he would “do the things one would expect a knight to do — to fight for justice, for people who don’t have any voice.”
Dame Denise, who helped organise the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and won gold at Sydney 2000, said: “It’s an incredible honour. I’m trying to take it in and its enormity.”
“I recognise I’m one of very few women in athletics that have received a damehood. I’m just so proud and incredibly beside myself.”
Lionesses skipper Leah Williamson gets an OBE following her team’s 2-1 extra-time win over Germany in July.
Golden Boot winner Beth Mead, defender Lucy Bronze and record goalscorer Ellen White get MBEs.
Ace Lucy told The Sun: “To be on this list because I’ve just been doing something that I love is amazing.”
The girls’ Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman gets a CBE on the overseas list and said: “I feel privileged and humbled and would like to dedicate this to the players, support team and others within the FA who have worked tirelessly for our shared success.”
Over 1,000 people are honoured. They include ex-Sun agony aunt Deidre Sanders — handed an MBE for charity work and decades-long service helping our readers. She said she was “utterly thrilled” and “so proud”.
Funnyman Frank Skinner, 65, is made an MBE. He joked he hadn’t told those closest to him, “because I still thought there might be some sort of administrative error.”
Ex-footballer turned broadcaster Chris Kamara, 65, gets an MBE for his anti-racism and charity work.
Countdown star Rachel Riley, 36 is made an MBE for her campaigns against anti-semitism.
Actor Stephen Graham, 49, who has won plaudits in Hollywood films and UK dramas is made an OBE, as is Homeland star David Harewood, 57,
Artist and broadcaster Grayson Perry, 62 is made a Knight Bachelor.
Radio 2’s DJ Spoony is awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his fundraising work in the pandemic.
Dennis the Menace illustrator David Sutherland who has been drawing for The Beano for 60 years gets an OBE.
He said: “I’ve been so lucky to be able to do something I love for a living, and work with so many talented writers whose words have helped bring these characters to life.”
Two ambassadors caught up in the Ukraine war become Dames — Kyiv’s embassy chief Melinda Simmons and Moscow chief Deborah Bronnert.
Ms Simmons called it a huge honour, adding: “I am proud of everyone I have worked with and everything we have done to support Ukrainians’ unwavering determination to live free, especially over the last year.
Ms Bronnert said she was hugely privileged, adding the year had been “scarred by the awful invasion”.
Three diplomats — Kate Davenport, Sarah Docherty and Nicolas Harrocks — are made OBEs.
Lt Col Andrew Kent, an orthopaedic surgeon, and emergency medicine consultant Dr Paul Ransom, become OBEs for work on the Ukraine frontline.
Nanny Louenna Hood, 38, from Newmarket, Cambs, gets a BEM for organising supplies and fundraising for Ukrainian refugees.
Schools reading volunteer Peter Davies, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, is the oldest honoree, getting a BEM at 100.
