A FOSTER mum, a primary school secretary and a livestock auctioneer are among the Lothian residents today recognised on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
They are joined by an Edinburgh University wave power expert, the senior police officer tasked with overseeing city centre operations and longest-serving head of a Scottish local authority.
Business leaders, including Royal Bank of Scotland chief
executive Fred Goodwin, Stagecoach co-founder Ann Gloag, tea cake king Archibald Tunnock and ex-Motherwell chairman John Boyle, all receive gongs. Mr Goodwin will be knighted for services to banking.
The world of football hailed two of its most celebrated stalwarts as they were rewarded for their achievements in the Honours List.
Former West Ham and England player Trevor Brooking receives a knighthood, while Wales manager Mark Hughes gets an OBE.
Also honoured in a list intended to reward the country’s unsung heroes are Dr Zoe Dunhill, who works at Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children, and High Court judge Lady Cosgrove. She receives a CBE for services to the criminal justice system. Dr Dunhill dedicated her MBE to colleagues at the hospital and the city’s School of Community Paediatrics.
Kay Mack, who attended East Lothian’s Tranent Primary as a child before returning as the school’s secretary in 1959, will get an MBE.
Mrs Mack, who stays in the town’s Edinburgh Road, said: "I’m a bit bewildered but very happy. I really only have been away from Tranent Primary for 12 years - I’m 63 and have spent 51 years there. But I’ve enjoyed myself so much being surrounded by kids."
Musselburgh foster mum Jean Innes has cared for more than 200 children over the last 30 years - and even adopted four of them.
Mrs Innes, awarded an MBE, said: "I got a bit of a surprise when I got the letter from Downing Street and it still doesn’t feel quite real."
The 58-year-old, from Edenhall Bank, and husband Jim, started fostering in 1975.
Mrs Innes said: "I was doing voluntary work in a children’s home and they had a special needs baby there. I wanted to look after her and the only way they would let us do it was by fostering. We kept her for four years."
Bill Blair, who worked as an auctioneer at the old Edinburgh Market in Chesser for 47 years is in line for the same award.
The 69-year-old from Riccarton Avenue specialised in Suffolk sheep and sold more than four million animals over his career - including one ram for £40,000.
He added: "Surprises don’t come any bigger than this. I just did my job as well as I could."
Renowned Edinburgh-based artist Joyce Gunn-Cairns, whose nude self-portraits have been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in Queen Street, gets an MBE.
Charles Hills, of Blackhall, Edinburgh, the founder of the Six Circle Group charity for young people, is also awarded an MBE.
The former borstal governor set up the charity in 1969 to provide volunteering opportunities for young people.
Mary "Maimie" Moncur, 76, from St John’s Road, was awarded an MBE for services to the community of Corstorphine.
She has spent many years involved with groups including the Corstorphine Trust, Corstorphine Old Parish Kirk and Red Cross.
Miss Moncur said: "I’m very, very pleased. I’ll be delighted to go to the Palace of Holyroodhouse."
Edinburgh Justice of the Peace Frederick Goodwin will receive a KBE for services to the community.
Lothian and Borders Police chief superintendent Allan Shanks received the Queen’s Police Medal.
He serves as divisional commander of the force’s A division.
Robert Cleland, 61, senior maintenance officer for Lothian and Borders Police, receives an MBE for services to the force over two decades. Mr Cleland said he was "humbled, proud and extremely chuffed" at being honoured.
Edinburgh University engineering design Professor Stephen Hugh Salter also gets an MBE.
The inventor and former aircraft fitter for British Hovercraft has studied renewable energy from waves and tides, the mathematics of nuclear disarmament, mine clearing and explosive suppression and worked to develop cleaner and quieter engines for vehicles.
Respiratory medicine professor Christopher Haslett, a key figure behind the £50 million Edinburgh Research Institute for Medical Cell Biology at Little France, gets an OBE. He was joined on the list by Midlothian Council chief executive Trevor Muir, who left school aged 16 with few qualifications before returning to further education.
The 54-year-old father-of-two was recognised with an OBE for services to local government in Scotland.
Volunteer bereavement counsellor Elizabeth Wimbush is to receive an MBE for her pioneering work with young people thorough local group Cruse. The 70-year-old retired nurse from Barnton said: "I’m gobsmacked. I have no idea who put me forward for this."
Dr Jack Dunnett, a man said to "live and breathe potatoes", gets an MBE for services to the potato industry in Scotland.
Dr Dunnett grows potatoes like others breed horses and has written a book about how he returned to his native Caithness in 1972 to set up his own breeding station.
For their charity work, Mrs Gloag is awarded an OBE while Mr Tunnock gets a CBE.
Commenting on the knighthood for Fred Goodwin, 45, Sir George Mathewson, chairman of RBoS Group, said: "The honour is richly deserved."
Brooking and Hughes head a list of sportsmen and women, showbusiness celebrities and leading figures from the arts, industry and the media receiving honours.
In showbusiness, the snooty TV character Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) would be delighted that the actress who plays her, Patricia Routledge is made a CBE. And a CBE also goes to actor John Hurt.
A CBE goes to Phil Redmond, a leading scriptwriter with what has been described as an "explosive" style. He was responsible for TV series Brookside, Hollyoaks and Grange Hill. Today he said of the award: "I was surprised at how pleased I was. It’s pretty cool."
There are OBEs for broadcaster Richard Whiteley, of Countdown fame, and for Angela Rippon, who became Britain’s first female newsreader on national TV.
An MBE goes to veteran TV weatherman Michael Fish.
There is also an OBE for Colin Parry, who became a powerful voice for the victims of terror after his 12-year-old son Tim died with three-year-old Johnathan Ball when two IRA bombs ripped through Warrington town centre in 1993.
Brooking, 55, described his knighthood as "a wonderful honour and a huge privilege".
