TEN Worcestershire residents have been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list for 2025.
Worcestershire’s dedication to sporting excellence, rural heritage, and exceptional community service has been honoured in the prestigious list.
Ten outstanding individuals from the county have been acknowledged for their contributions across various sectors, celebrating their dedication and impact.
The Lord-Lieutenant of Worcestershire, Mrs Beatrice Grant, sent her congratulations to all being recognised.
She said, “It is wonderful to see ten members of our community honoured for their outstanding contributions to public life and their unwavering dedication to helping others.
“I extend my heartfelt congratulations and deepest gratitude to each of them for their invaluable service to society and to our county.”
Recipient of an MBE for services to sustainable floristry, Shane Connolly, from the Malvern Hills district, is a sustainable floral designer and florist who arranged the British grown flowers at Their Majesties coronation.
She said: “I am deeply honoured to be awarded an MBE in The King’s Birthday Honours. Sustainable Floristry is something I am passionate about and this award brings it into even greater focus.
“Both The King and The Queen have been supporters of British Grown, seasonal flowers for many years and that encourages us all enormously.”
Recipient of a BEM for services to environmental education, Karen Blanchfield, from Stourport, has been recognised her work founding the Little Litter Warriors, a project providing schools with litter picking workshops and adctivities to help children learn about the environmental damage of litter across the county.
She said: “I’m truly honoured and humbled to be receiving this award, and to receive this recognition for something I care so much about is amazing.
“I’m really passionate about helping our Worcestershire communities in particular, the younger generation to learn about litter and about keeping the world we live in clean and tidy, both now and in the future.”
Among the other recipients are Melanie Clarke OBE (services to road networks), Hannah Sidaway OBE (services to law and order), Steven Davies MBE (services to sport), Geoffrey Sansome MBE (services to farming and voluntary sector), Merleen Watson MBE (services to deaf and hard of hearing community), Richard Hayhow BEM (services to young people with learning disabilities and artists), Patricia Neal BEM (services to grass roots netball) and Jane Poynder BEM (services to sport).
Visit https://www.gov.uk/honours for more information.
