King's Birthday Honours List: Recipients in and around Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth

King Charles III has honoured a range of people across the country involved in areas such as politics, sport, health and charity.

The honours list recognises people’s achievements in public life and those who have shown commitment to serving their communities and the UK.

Here is the list of recipients from in and around Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth

Craig Fellowes MBE

Craig Fellowes, who is from just outside Warwick, is the Wildlife Crime and Training Officer for Badger Trust.

He was given the award in recognition of his service to wildlife and wildlife protection.

The award reflects 40 years of Craig tackling wildlife crime through a police service and training career, work with the National Wildlife Crime Unit and his present role at Badger Trust.

Craig has now trained every police force in England and Wales to recognise and record crimes against badgers, helping them secure successful prosecutions.

The Badger Trust said Craig’s expertise is needed more than ever as badger baiting gangs and other criminals continue to persecute this wonderful animal.

Craig said: “This is a great honour for myself and everyone who has supported me in my work fighting crimes against wildlife.

"Nature needs protection, and I hope this award shows how important this work is.”

More about Craig

• He retired from Warwickshire Police in 2014 after 30 years of service.
• As a young officer, he identified a gap in dealing with wildlife crime and developed a ground-breaking National Wildlife Officers Foundation Course in 1997.
• He was the first UK Police Officer invited to address the North American Wildlife Conference in 1999 and again in 2005.
• He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Warwickshire Police and WWF in 2006 and a Special Merit Award in 2009.
• He returned to work as a Wildlife Crime Officer for the Badger Trust in 2016 and helped develop a CITES course with NWCU, who awarded him 'Partner of the Year' in 2017.
• For 15 years he delivered his training to police across the UK, bringing into practice multi-agency enforcement in a way not seen before.
• His work led to the MoD implementing a similar course in 1999 and merging efforts in 2005, reaching 1,000 students by 2014.
• His pioneering initiative remains the only accredited course for UK Police to this day, positively impacting policing and wildlife crime practices across the UK.

Graham Fulford MBE

Graham is the founder of the Warwick-based charity the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust.

He received his award for services to prostate cancer awareness and earlier diagnosis

The charitable trust also received a King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) this year.

The Graham Fulford Trust was set up in 2004 to increase awareness and provide local PSA testing.

PSA testing is a blood test that measures the amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA)

The test produces falls of over 40 per cent in the death rate, but only 10 per cent of UK men seek screening.

All men aged over 50 are entitled to the test.

Since 2004, the charity has been involved in testing more than 252,682 people and has so far identified 2,500 known cancers that might otherwise not have been discovered.

Adam Read MBE

Adam, who is 50 and from Southam, is a trustee at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM). He is also the chief sustainability and external affairs officer at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK.

Adam was also previously the president of CIWM.

He joined the company in 2017 and worked in the waste sector for around 30 years across areas including academia, research, as a local authority officer and consultant.

He received the award for services to waste and resources.

Dr Adam Read MBE said: "I’m honoured to have my work for CIWM and the sector recognised with an MBE and would like to thank CIWM for nominating me.

"I’m touched by their kind words and enormously grateful for the support they have given me over the years.

"As someone who is passionate about the work our sector does and who values giving back to support those pursuing a career in waste and resources, I’m very proud to have made an impact.”

More about Adam

• He has made a great impact in advancing the Waste and Resources Management sector over the past 30 years by supporting the industry to change its focus from disposal, to recycling and most recently to a circular economy approach.
• He has led the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) work on green skills and furthering CIWM’s charitable objectives to promote education in the sector.
• He has been involved as a volunteer with the CIWM for more than 25 years. He became the 105th President of CIWM in 2021, championing the importance of skills development in the sector and the link between meeting the UKs NetZero and Circular Economy objectives.
• His presidential report published in 2021 provided vital guidance to a sector in transition, and despite his presidential year coming to an end he has continued volunteering as chair for a number of working groups including Governments Green jobs Delivery Group to this day.
• Over the last twenty years he has mentored hundreds of people helping them to develop and transform the industry, making it increasingly more diverse and reflective of today’s wider society championing the 2022 EDI strategy.
• He supported a project in 2021 that saw the development of two gamified learning programmes to train new entrants to the sector to understand key health and safety risks; built to ensure those with low levels of English literacy could understand, engage and learn in a fun online environment.
• He is engaged in current work in 2023 to develop careers information for young people, having identified that circular economy jobs do not feature strongly in UK career guidance.

Susan Robson MBE

50-year-old Susan from Leamington received the award for services to gender equity, diversity and inclusion in engineering and energy.

More about Susan

• In her EDI roles, she has delivered outstanding impactful contributions at the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), National Grid and beyond.
• At National Grid (as a volunteer), she transformed the gender employee resource group in her role as chair, from a team of four to 70 active volunteers having run an inclusive strategic review, and defined and communicated a clear vision, strategy and operating model.
• She mobilised a team of diverse volunteers to deliver initiatives in training, mentoring, industry pipeline, role modelling, events and employee journey which significantly contributed to National Grid returning to The Times ‘Top 50 employers of women’ list after years of absence.
• In her leadership role, she ensured active members had a clearly defined volunteer value proposition to benefit their professional development.
• Her work was recognised independently by The Financial Times with the ‘Champion of Women in Business’ prize.
• At WES, she delivered a revised strategic architecture following inclusive engagement with stakeholders, and a plan for operating model transformation that has enabled WES to achieve the stable platform and capability-set needed for growth in their mission to support women, institutions and industry to be inclusive, equitable and diverse based on gender.
• She personally led the redesign of the governance, and the strategy cascades to the Directors’ Committees.
• Her performance at WES was independently recognised by The Sunday Times who shortlisted her in the Non-Executive Director Awards.
• She was also awarded the Gillian Skinner award for outstanding contribution to WES.

Janet Nelson BEM

Janet, who is 83 from Butlers Marston, is a governor at Kineton Church of England Primary School.

She was presented the award in recognition of her services to education.

More about Janet

• She has been a volunteer at Kineton Primary School for more than 40 years.
• More recently as a governor, she was chair of the premises committee supporting the school with health and safety inspections, and involved in financial decisions related to maintenance and development of the premises.
• Following a tragedy many years ago in which a pupil drowned, she campaigned for the building of a pool at the school. She researched appropriate specifications for a primary school pool, raised money, and after it was built, spent the next 15-20 years delivering the swimming programme. For years, virtually every pupil has left the school able to swim and perform basic lifesaving.
• She has promoted walk/bike to school initiatives focused on improving family fitness and reducing local traffic; facilitated courses about bike and pedestrian safety; organised the school's annual ‘Race for Life’ event; and supported pupils with countless fund-raising activities.
• She facilitated the school council, nurturing the pupils’ sense of personal responsibility and understanding of democracy, ensuring they knew their voice would be heard.
• She organised an after-school enterprise club for pupils to develop enterprise skills; and championed the forest schools initiative.
• She also set up and led a school eco group for pupils, helping them to promote energy saving schemes, express views about climate change, recycle waste, learn how to be responsible citizens and make a difference for the future.
• She hears pupils read and has held the role of school librarian, reorganising and cataloguing the school’s books and supporting access for vulnerable pupils.
• As a result of her dedicated service, many thousands of pounds have been raised for Cancer Research and other charities.
• In 2018 the leaving cohort of pupils voted her ‘Heart of the School’ reflecting their respect for her.

Ed Russell OBE

Ed, who is the chief executive of WCS Care, has been named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to care home residents.

Ed’s care journey began in 1992 when he started as a carer at WCS Care, a registered charity that operates 13 care homes across Warwickshire – including in Kenilworth, Leamington and Warwick.

He has dedicated more than 30 years of his working life to the improvement of the health, wellbeing and quality of life of residents living in residential care homes.

Having worked in most positions and gained experience of every role in a care home, Ed progressed through management to become WCS Care’s Chief Executive in 2020.

Ed said: “Wow! This is so amazing that work inside the UK’s care homes is being recognised in this way.

"I still remember my first day working as a carer, and now being able to challenge the UK and wider care sector is a privilege, looking differently at how we do things.

"Innovations like circadian rhythm lighting and acoustic night-time monitoring are but two of a long list of sustainable improvements which will make care homes of the future better for us all.

“I feel very honoured to receive this award as a representative of the so many amazing carers who strive every day to give the best life possible to care home residents.”

Edward Bracher OBE

Edward is the chief executive officer at Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) and the founder and chair of the Equine Assisted Services Partnership.

He received the award for services to disabled people.

The RDA’s head office is based in Shrewley near Warwick.

It welcomes coaches and volunteers from across the organisation and the yard is also home to three local RDA groups who use the horses and equestrian facilities on a regular basis.

At the site, RDA staff provide support and services to groups, including specialist coach training, charity governance advice, disability advice and training, as well as competitions.

Professor Clive Henry Buckberry MBE

Clive, who is from the Warwick area, is the FREng co-founder and engineering fellow at Quanta Dialysis Technologies.

He was presented his award for services to medical engineering.

Recipients from wider Warwickshire

Tina Costello OBE

Tina is the chief executive officer at the Heart of England Community Foundation, which serves the Coventry and Warwickshire area.

She received the award for services to charity and voluntary organisations across the West Midlands and Warwickshire.

Heart of England Community Foundation is a grant making foundation and since 1995, it has awarded more than £35 million to over 7,000 causes across the region.

David Boughey OBE

David, who is from Nuneaton, was presented the award for his services to the community in Coventry.

He is the managing director of Events need Volunteers (EnV) Coventry CIC.

David is also a founding director and led Coventry’s Host City volunteer programme for the London2012 Olympic Games.

He was invited to share best practice with Games Officials in Tokyo and to deliver international welcome training to the Tokyo2020 “City Cast” volunteers.

EnV also received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020.

Sarah Hosking MBE

Sarah, 81, from the Stratford area received her award for services to literature and to the arts.

Sarah bought a cottage in Clifford Chambers around 24 years ago and created the Hosking Houses Trust.

The charity offers a retreat and financial support to women so that they can complete work in the arts or in academic avenues.

More about Sarah

• She established a charitable residential writer’s retreat, Hosking Houses Trust (HHT), for women over forty years of age involved in writing or any other form of art or creative work, which has now been operational for over 20 years.
• She has worked in an almost exclusively voluntary capacity as the charity’s Fundraiser, Administrator, Clerk to Trustees and Retreat Manager.
• She spearheaded fundraising in 2008 for The Foundation for Sport and Arts to clear the mortgage for and equip it to cater full time for artistic residencies.
• The Trust has hosted well over 150 residencies, residents have collectively produced over 200 publications, five films, ten plays and been involved in multiple collaborations.
• In 2021, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in recognition of her personal contribution.

Sean Russell MBE

Sean, who is from the Stratford area, is a programme director and mental health and productivity pilot.

He received his award for services to mental health.

More about Sean

• He is a retired senior police officer with over twenty years’ experience and was previously the Programme Director of the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot (MHPP).
• He has led this £10 million pilot to support over 650,000 employees in the Midlands since 2019.
• His work has driven several cutting-edge initiatives in the field of workplace health and wellbeing. These initiatives are trialling innovations to reduce mental ill health, support people to stay in work, and encourage healthier, more productive communities.
• One example was ‘Thrive into Work’, a world-leading trial of an evidenced employment support model for people with health conditions. His personal effort to drive recruitment against considerable challenges was key. Nearly 10,000 participants were recruited and approximately a third of these were supported into work.
• During the Covid-19 pandemic, he developed ‘Thrive at Home’ to support employees to stay mentally and physically healthy, while taking on an important role in coordinating the regional COVID-19 response.

George Atkinson and Giulietta Galli-Atkinson BEM

George and Giulietta are a couple from Rugby who have campaigned for road safety.

They helped introduce tougher sentences for drivers who harm pedestrians. They started campaigning after their 16-year-old daughter Livia was killed when a driver mounted the pavement while she was walking home.

The couple were presented their awards for their services to road safety.

More about George and Giulietta

• In 1999 they established The Livia Awards in memory of their daughter, Livia, who was tragically killed on a pavement on her way home to ballet by a driver who mounted the pavement in 1998.
• They have campaigned for legal reform in respect of sentencing for those who kill and maim whilst driving.
• They were a driving force and regular contributors behind Safe Drive Stay Alive (SDSA) and similar initiatives aimed at educating secondary school children in road safety.
• SDSA delivered road safety training to over 100,000 young people participating in over 190 schools in London alone.
• Their campaigning has contributed to legal change including more severe sentences for drivers who kill and maim. The Livia was the first public award dedicated to recognizing the investigative work of police officers in serious and fatal road traffic collisions.
• Their initiatives are entirely self-funded or funded by commercial sponsorship they secure.
• They are not only doing this work for the memory of their daughter, but also to encourage and recognise meritorious work by the police service in road death investigation and providing outstanding service to families of road crash victims and young people approaching driving age.
• Their efforts also serve to raise the profile of victim support and improve practices going forward. Their provision of the Livia Award, and all the time and expense associated with it has been entirely voluntary. This is also true of their memorial garden in Enfield.
• Their support in the background and in person for SDSA and their responses and associated campaigning in respect of over 20 Government consultations since 2000. The Livia Awards, now in their 26th year, are regarded as one of the most important events in the Parliamentary Road Safety calendar.