Heroes celebrated in Queen’s Birthday Honours
An art champion, dedicated fundraiser, and engineer have all been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Retired chief executive of the Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton Christine McGowan; Gurcharan Singh, a widower who raised more than £30,000 for good causes after his wife died; and infrastructure engineer at West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service Aghia Pal Singh are just some of the community heroes who have been honoured.
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The Queen’s Birthday Honours sets out each year to reward people in the community, who have gone above and beyond to make a difference.
The list this year also includes a chief librarian from Stourbridge, two education leaders, a chief nurse from Sandwell, and a GP at NHS Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) – among many others all across the West Midlands and Staffordshire.
Christine McGowan, who lives in Whitmore Reans, received an MBE for services to the developing of the arts in Wolverhampton.
The 66-year-old is the retired chief executive of the Newhampton Arts Centre and said she was ‘very surprised’ when she heard the news.
“I had to read the letter a few times,” she admitted. “I was excited though, and very honoured. I’m so pleased the the role of the arts is being recognised in Wolverhampton. I think it’s a big part of the city.
“I worked with a very good, small team who were really committed to making things happen.”
Ms McGowan worked at the arts centre since 2001 – one year after it was set up. She retired in June last year but still visits regularly.
She was honoured for establishing the NAC as a ‘jewel in the heart of the community’.
She also managed to secure a substantial annual grant of £280,000 from the Art Council fund – which lasts for four years.
The mother-of-three added: “I managed to secure that just before I retired, so it was really nice to leave that legacy behind. It was something I was really proud of.”
Pensioner Gurcharan Singh Bedi has been honoured with a BEM at the age of 77 years old for his work raising funds for charity and the community in Dudley.
The 77-year-old from Brierley Hill organised a number of fundraising events for charities after his wife died of cancer in 2008. He raised more than £30,000 overall for charities such as Action Heart, St Mary’s Hospice, The Indian Earthquake Appeal, The Holocaust Memorial, White House Cancer Support, Dudley Volunteer Centre, Cancer UK and The Georgina Unit at Russell Hall Hospital.
He also lobbied and petitioned successfully for a pelican crossing after a child was killed on a busy road outside his local temple, and was instrumental in getting two bus services reinstated after they were withdrawn.
Mr Singh Bedi is a strong believer in community cohesion and has promoted inclusion through his membership of the local Inter Faith Network, helping MP Ian Austin with the organisation of the local Annual Holocaust Memorial Commemoration. This is one of the largest in the region, having over 400 attendees in 2017.
He said he was honoured to receive the award.
The former director of midwifery and chief nurse of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust Elaine Newell received an OBE for her services to midwifery.
She retired in May last year, and said: “It is an unbelievable honour to have been recognised in this way for services to midwifery. It has been both a passion and a privilege to serve women and families in communities local to my own home.
“It is hard to put into words what this means to myself and my family who have always been so supportive, but I am incredibly proud.”
Chief executive officer of Perry Hall Multi-Academy Trust Amarjit Cheema, from Wolverhampton, Jeannette MacKinney, from Stourbridge, chief executive officer of Hales Valley Trust both received OBEs for their services to education.
Susan Ball, from Coven in Staffordshire, received an MBE for services to libraries and infrastructure engineer at West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service in Walsall Aghia Pal Singh received an MBE for services to charity and the community.
