HOLLYWOOD actor Alan Cumming and controversial artist Peter Howson are among the Scots making the Queen's Birthday Honours list this year.
The celebrity pair join hundreds of people from all walks of life who are honoured for making a real difference to the people around them.
Actress Lindsay Duncan, disabled swimmer James Anderson and prisons inspector Andrew McLellan also receive a
wards.
Cumming, 44, who was born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, receives an OBE for services to film, theatre and the arts and for his work as a gay rights campaigner.
Since his teenage days as a member of the Carnoustie Theatre Club, Cumming has gone on to star in blockbuster movies such as 2003's X2: X Men United and the Spy Kids trilogy, as well as TV appearances in Sex and the City, Frasier and Third Rock From The Sun.
Cumming came to prominence in the late 1980s with the camp Victor and Barry double act with Forbes Masson. They later starred in the sitcom The High Life.
The actor won an Olivier award in 1991 for his performance in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist at the National Theatre in London and a Tony for his role in Cabaret on Broadway in 1998.
The only Scot to be knighted is Professor Charles Duncan Rice, principal of Aberdeen University.
The Aberdeen-born historian graduated from the city's university in 1964. He taught there briefly and completed an Edinburgh doctorate before spending much of his professional life in Yale and New York universities. He is married to Susan Rice, head of Lloyds TSB Scotland.
Another leading member of Scotland's academic world, Joan Stringer, principal and vice-chancellor, Edinburgh Napier University, is made a dame, for services to local and national higher education.
Ronnie Smith, general secretary of Scotland's biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, gets an OBE for services to education.
James Anderson, 46, one of Scotland's most successful paralympic athletes, receives an OBE for services to his sport.
"Jim the Swim" said he was "shocked" at receiving a second honour in less than five years – in 2004 he was made an MBE.
The St Andrews-born swimmer, who has cerebral palsy, has represented Great Britain at five Paralympic Games and has 17 medals including six golds.
Yesterday Anderson, who lives in Broxburn, West Lothian, said he plans to have a party to celebrate.
His mother Brenda said she has baked her son's favourite fruit cake for the celebration with family members.
Anderson represented Great Britain at the Paralympic Games in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
He has won a medal in every Paralympic race he has entered, including two golds in 1996 and four in 2004.
He has set two world records in his career and has won a number of European and World Championship golds.
He brought home two silver and two bronze medals from last year's Paralympic Games in Beijing.
An outspoken critic of prison conditions in Scotland, Dr Andrew McLellan, 64, receives a CBE. Dr McLellan, who stepped down this week as HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland, has regularly criticised overcrowding, slopping out and the detention of children in adult jails.
The former Kirk moderator said yesterday: "I am particularly pleased that work among prisoners is recognised nationally."
An MBE goes to Joe Grant, the former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, which represents thousands of rank-and-file officers.
The list also includes several figures from Scotland's visual and performing arts world – including the director of the National Gallery of Scotland, Michael Clarke. Mr Clarke, who becomes a CBE, has been keeper and then director of the National Gallery since 1987.
From 1999 to 2004 he was director of the Playfair Project, the £30 million extension and renovation of the National Gallery.
Dancer Paul Liburd, of Scottish Ballet, receives an MBE.
During his career he has danced with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Irek Mukhamedov & Dancers.
He joined Scottish Ballet in autumn 2004 and, in January 2005, received the Dance Critics' Circle award for best male dancer (contemporary).
Among the "local heroes" receiving MBEs are Ian Shand, former janitor of Arduthie Primary School in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire lifeboat coxswain Robert Erskine, from Portpatrick, near Stranraer, and Donald Stirling, 54, from Inverness for his campaigning work for disabled people.
Howson tells of celebratory snack with his motherARTIST Peter Howson, who is made an OBE, has told of his surprise at his reaction to the award.
"I always thought I'd react coolly to something like this, but I didn't, I'm actually pretty excited," he said.
The controversial artist – who said he likes to steer away from big events and publicity – marked the occasion by having "an egg sandwich and some cake" with his mother in Glasgow.
Howson – whose oil painting depicting pop star Madonna naked with her ex-husband sold for a record price this month – made his reputation recording hard-hitting, working-class men.
He was appointed the official British war artist for Bosnia in 1993. by the Imperial War Museum. One of his paintings, Croatian and Muslim, depicting a rape scene, attracted controversy because he had painted it from accounts by victims.
Howson's recent works have had strong religious themes, said to be linked to his conversion to Christianity.
Last month, he revealed he had created a secret painting of Robert Burns to raise money for a museum in Alloway, Ayrshire.
Sweet news for long-serving lollipop ladyA LOLLIPOP lady who has patrolled the same road for 28 years has been awarded an MBE.
Libby Ramsay, 45, was recognised for her work with primary school children in the village of Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire.
Ms Ramsay, who also helps at the local Sunday school, was honoured for services to the community.
She said she was "very, very pleased" to receive the honour, and hoped to keep working as a crossing warden in Tannoch Road for years.
"I was only 18 when I got the job, and I think I must be one of the youngest crossing wardens around."
MBE reflect's team''s effortsROSS Noble, who has dedicated most of his working life to the Highland Folk Museum, played down his MBE, saying it was entirely down to a "team effort".
"I think it's amazing to get something like this. I didn't expect this, but it reflects the team, not just me," he said.
Mr Noble, 67, has spent 20 years developing the 85-acre site at Newtonmore – Britain's first open-air museum – which features traditional crofts and black houses.
Mr Noble said visitors to the museum had included members of the royal family and musician Johnny Cash.
Fundraiser 'couldn't believe it'GILLIAN Mitchell, who receives an MBE for her volunteer work raising funds for premature babies, said she could hardly speak for two hours after hearing she was to be honoured.
"I just kept saying 'Oh, my goodness' and 'I don't believe it' over and over again," said Mrs Mitchell, 53, a neonatal secretary at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Her efforts over 11 years have helped raise more than £400,000 for the Simpsons Special Care Babies charity. Items bought include a £60,000 transporter incubator and a £70,000 scanner.
