Well known figures from Cornwall in King's Birthday Honours List

The man putting Cornwall at the forefront of space science, a stalwart of Falmouth Lifeboat and a Helston jeweller raising thousands for charity are among those recognised in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List.

King Charles has honoured people from across Cornwall in the 2024 Honours List, with 70 from the south west.

OBE

They include Ian Martin Jones, the founder and chief executive of Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, who has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

The honour is for services to space communications, through his work at Goonhilly, near Helston.

Under his leadership, Goonhilly Earth Station – already the home of satellite communications since 1962 - continues to be recognised as the ground station of choice for the world’s major satellite operators, and has since expanded its services to include lunar and deep space communications.

Ian Jones is the founder and chief executive of Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (Image: GES)

The Goonhilly team played an important role in the Indian moon mission last August, providing essential comms as the spacecraft orbited the moon, and for Chandrayaan-3 lander on the surface, working with the European Space Agency (ESA).

They also helped Intuitive Machine's Odysseus mission in February, which landed a commercial spacecraft on the moon for the first time, near the lunar south pole.

MBE

Also recognised is Sharron Adams, who has been made a Member of the British Empire (MBE).

The 48-year-old from Par is manager of the Covid-19 Children’s Home, run by Cornwall Council, and the award is for services to children and young people.

Sharron is the registered manager of the children’s home for disabled children and young people. She stepped up to provide management for two children’s homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, changing the usual ways of working to inform and update risk assessments to keep children and staff safe, and reviewing services around individual children’s needs in light of the pandemic.

She works with a wide range of children who are designated as ‘in need’, on a child protection plan, or who have entered care. Her citation reads: “She always puts the needs of these children at the heart of everything she does and is a role model for skilled direct work with children.”

Professor Tanya Krzywinska, from Penzance, has been named an MBE for services to higher education and to the video games industry.

She is professor of digital games at Falmouth University and founding director of the university’s Games Academy.

In addition to her role at Falmouth, Tanya is the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Games and Culture. Her distinguished career includes serving as president of the Digital Games Research Association (2009-2011) and collaborating with leading figures in the global games industry.

Professor Tanya Krzywinska is professor of digital games at Falmouth University and founding director of the university’s Games Academy (Image: Falmouth University)

Another new MBE from Cornwall is Pamela Waters, from Newquay, for services to education.

The 47-year-old is an experienced teacher and leader, working in primary schools for almost 25 years. She has been the Strategic Lead of the Kernow English Hub since 2018, one of the strongest performing in the Hubs network, supporting primary schools - many containing above average proportions of Free School Meal pupils and underperforming in phonics.

She has provided leadership in the southwest region and nationally, serving on the national Hubs Council, which sets the direction for the whole English Hubs programme.

Under her leadership the Kernow Hub has provided intensive support to 53 primary schools and medium level support to at least 193 primary schools across Cornwall, Devon, and the Scilly Isles.

Also being made an MBE is Anthony Atkinson from Callington, for services to wildlife and ecology; Andrew James Lockett from Torpoint, treasurer of the South Atlantic Medal Association, for voluntary services to veterans; and Clare Pooley from Truro, who is chief of staff at the House of Commons, for services to parliament.

BEM

A range of people from Cornwall have also been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Honours List.

They include David Nicoll, from Falmouth, Deputy 2nd Coxswain at RNLI Falmouth and fundraising and partnership lead in the south west for the RNLI.

The 61-year-old is the son of a renowned fundraiser for the RNLI in Falmouth, officially joining as volunteer crew in 1980 aged 18 – although he fondly remembers holding collection buckets alongside his mother for many years prior to this.

Over the past 43 years, he has progressed within the operational crew from all-weather and inshore lifeboat crew to Lifeboat Trainer Assessor, and Deputy 2nd Coxswain.

Since electronic records began in 1994 he has been involved with 820 launches, aided 864 people, spending 1,082 hours at sea saving lives and a further 1,800 hours during training and exercises. In this time, he has been directly involved in saving 46 lives.

Dave has been involved in many rescues of note, such as a response to a mayday call in October 2021 from the yacht Sharifa with two people onboard after dragging her mooring and becoming entangled with another sailing vessel in Falmouth’s Inner Harbour. The weather was extreme with storm force winds gusting up to 90 mph. The crew were sent a letter of thanks from the RNLI for their role in towing Sharifa to safety that night.

Dave Nicoll has over 40 years' service at Falmouth RNLI (Image: RNLI/Simon Culliford)

In 2001, in addition to his operational volunteer role, Dave joined the staff as part of the fundraising team.  Over 22 years he has led several fundraising events, including the Falmouth to St Mawes Castle-to-Castle Swim which he founded 12 years ago, and the Marazion Round the Mount Swim which has been running for five years. Collectively, these events have raised more than £350,000 with more than 4,000 participants.

In 2002, he was elected a parent governor at St Francis Primary School; taking on the role of vice chairman in 2012 and then chairman of the governing board in 2014, he oversaw the formation of the Killigrew Partnership, bringing together two schools and subsequently joining the Falmouth Multi-Academy Trust of which he is both a director and trustee.

Sarah Jane Corbridge, from Helston, has been awarded a BEM for services to the community in Helston.

The 56-year-old owns Lismore House with her husband Adam, which hosts the Flora Day dances in its gardens every year, and is the owner of Wearnes Jewellers in Helston and Falmouth.

Sarah is an active trustee at BF Adventure in Longdowns and has continued to support their development after the initial major fund-raising contribution.

In 2014, she was instrumental in supporting BF Adventure to build a vital catering and education facility for young people, leveraging her contacts and networks to ensure materials and skills were donated.

As a member of Helston-Lizard Inner Wheel, she was the first to come up with the idea of having materials donated. Instead of just giving money towards the kitchen building, she thought of asking for donations of materials, which had an estimated cost of approximately £25,000.

She single-handedly coaxed and cajoled her business contacts and anyone who would listen to give their time, expertise, or construction materials. The £150,000 facility was completed for just a £10,000 outlay, at no net  cost to the charity, largely because of the drive and effort of her own time to allow the disadvantaged children of BF Adventure to enjoy their Christmas lunch.

Since then, she has supported numerous other site projects and fundraising initiatives and has made a massive contribution to the continued development and support of young people.

Sarah pictured at this year's Helston Flora Day (Image: Helston Packet)

Sarah joined the active board of trustees in 2019.

She has organised a 'sleep out' event that raised over £1,000 for St Petrocs and the homeless, and raised another £1,000 in an online auction for Children’s Hospice South West.

Sally Margaret Bourton is the postmistress for Trewoon and has been at the heart of her Cornish community for 24 years serving her village near St Austell and the surrounding area.

The 60-year-old juggles not only running her Post Office but also organising fundraising activities and community activities.

During Covid, she was instrumental in pulling together a list of local volunteers in the area who were willing to help the community and to distribute leaflets across the village. She organised socially distanced sing-a-longs in the evenings to keep spirits up.

Sally also coordinates a clothes collection box for vulnerable people who had left hospital, who for a variety of reasons were unable to go home and only had the clothes that they were wearing.  Inside her office she has a collection of books, jigsaws etc that customers donate, with the money from sales going to charity.

During the late Queen’s Jubilee, she organised for every child in the village to receive both a Jubilee coin and a mug to celebrate, along with organising the Jubilee celebrations. For King Charles’ Coronation, she then coordinated for every child in the village to receive a mint coin with the King's Head on it. She was also involved in organising all the Coronation celebrations in the village.

Sally leads a team of charity fundraisers who have raised many thousands of pounds over time for numerous causes.

Her latest project is to turn part of her Post Office into a Community Hub. She and her fundraising team are busy applying for grants and raising funds to make this happen. The Post Office already acts as a type of local food bank, with various food items, such as bread and vegetables, dropped off for villagers to simply come along and collect.

Also receive British Empire Medals are:

Sheila Ann Cholwill, 75, from Bude, for services to charity and to the community in Bridgerule, Devon.

David Sims Farley, from Wadebridge, for services to the community in Wadebridge and Lanreath.

Maureen Grace Rickard, lately postmistress at St Minver Post Office, for services to the community in St Minver.