Skip to content
The Essex residents recognised in King’s Birthday Honours list including WWII survivor
A survivor of the Second World War, a charity campaigner who has raised nearly half a million pounds and the manager of a soup kitchen for the homeless are among the Essex people honoured in the King’s Birthday Honours list.
In the first honours list for King Charles III’s reign, he will recognise the outstanding acts of public service by members of the public for his birthday celebrations on Saturday (June 17). New honours lists are announced every year for the Monarch’s birthdays and other celebrations, including last year for Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee, in addition to the New Years’ Honours.
Essex has its fair share of community heroes, with this year being no exception, with multiple public figures from the county being recognised. They include a survivor of the Nazi regime in the Second World War, an organiser of the Queen’s funeral arrangements, a tutor who also runs a homeless kitchen, and one of the most skilled ornamental artists in the country.
Read more: The latest breaking news from across Essex
Below is a list of the Essex people recognised in the King’s birthday honours this year and their remarkable achievements.
The charity campaigner and world record holder who has raised £450,000 in four years
Alexander Gibson will receive a British Empire Medal for his services to charity, particularly those with Motor Neurone Disease.. The 45-year-old from Brentwood was diagnosed with the disease in 2018, and his rugby friends held a rugby tournament to raise funds for him and his young family – the money was used to create Challenging MND.
Now, Alexander spends much of his time raising money through world record-breaking endeavours. He broke the record for pedalo-ing the length of the Chelmer, pressing 1,000,000 kg in 12 hours and he has also successfully completed the three peaks challenging which included cycling in between.
His fundraising has now exceeded £450,000 in just a four year period and in addition to this he still gives talks to schools and community groups to raise awareness and interest in fundraising for Challenging MND.
During Covid he and the trustees agreed to donate £100,000 to the MNDA, the vast national charity for supporting individuals and research into MND, as they were able to offer financial emergency support during the pandemic due to their huge database of patients.
For those who are further along in the journey with MND, there are virtual reality experiences available and Challenging MND provides each beneficiary with a pair of goggles to experience a VR activity of their choice. This way people who are now confined to a wheelchair or bed can enjoy immersive experiences such as walking through a forest, sky diving or swimming with dolphins.
On receiving the honour, Alex said: “It was great to be recognised. I accept the award on behalf of the MND community which we serve, not to mention all the stakeholders and trustees involved in the charity. The honour and privilege should be shared by all”.
Liane Iles, CEO of Challenging MND, said: “We’re delighted by Alex’s achievements and are in awe of him and his outlook on life. He’s a true philanthropist and has dedicated his final years to ensuring MND Warriors feel empowered, supported and seen. He sets the bar high and inspires his close knit CMND support team to drive for the most incredible goals.”
The college tutor who also cooks for the homeless
48-year-old Cheryl Bertschi, from Leigh-on-Sea, has worked in Early Years for 28 years and during this time has won awards for excellence and innovation for her work in school. She will be honoured with a British Empire Medal for services to education.
Cheryl is now a full-time college tutor and has designed and runs various courses for early years practitioners. For the past nine years she has run a soup kitchen based in Southend-on-Sea for the homeless along with also being an Outreach Volunteer for the homeless and vulnerable in Southend.
The soup kitchen feeds around 80 homeless and vulnerable individuals every Saturday evening. She has also organised Christmas present donations for under-privileged children in the area and has worked with a charity named “Dress for Success” that helps women get back into the workplace.
Cheryl is also part of the Local Oversight Group which exists to raise standards for those living in poverty in the Southend area and is also a Governor on the committee of a school and a magistrate. During the pandemic she volunteered in a pop-up night shelter working with the homeless until they were placed in local bed and breakfast establishments.
Cheryl also went out daily to carry out welfare checks on vulnerable individuals, administering emergency first aid where necessary. Currently, she also volunteers a couple of nights a week where she helps to signpost addicts to local services that would help them with their addiction.
Cheryl said: “I am honoured and delighted to be included in the King’s Birthday Honours and to be receiving the British Empire Medal.”
The 100-year-old who survived the Holocaust
Rolf Penzias, from Buckhurst Hill, will be given a British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust Remembrance and Education. Rolf has been a member of the AJR’s Kindertransport Committee for more than 20 years, helping to ensure that social welfare support reaches those with the greatest needs, and jointly developing ways to perpetuate the memory and experiences of the child refugees.
When he was a child, Rolf fled Germany through the Kindertransport effort, which was an organised rescue of children from Nazi-controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Since beginning his new life in the UK, Rolf has been a key source of guidance in helping to organise three occasions when Kinder have been fortunate to attend receptions hosted by (now) His Royal Highness King Charles III.
Additionally, he played a pivotal role in the production of the gala concert production of The Last Train to Tomorrow at the Roundhouse. In 2008 he was involved in organising a reunion of the Kind (child refugees) from the Kindertransport.
In 2008 he also spoke to 60 trainee police officers in Berlin about his life in Munich before the Second World War and his escape to the UK on a Kindertransport, at several of the inauguration ceremonies of the Kindertransport monuments at the request of the Kindertransport Organization Deutschland e.V.
These included the inauguration of the Berlin sculpture “Trains to life – trains to death” during the commemorative events at Friedrichstrasse station in Berlin. In 2011 he spoke to a gathering of students from the Dreemaster School in the Hook of Holland on the subject of the Holocaust at the request of the Kindertransport Organization Deutschland e.V., during the inauguration ceremony of the group of sculptures.
Between 2014-2020 he has spoken many times at South West Essex & Settlement Reform Synagogue on Yom HaShoah (Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day) in March/April and at Shabbat services close to Remembrance Sunday in November.
He has also spoken to Bar and Bat Mitzvah students as part of their educational programme. Rolf was one of the eldest Kinder on the transport and recalls helping the younger children throughout their journey. He has participated in a programme linked to Holocaust Memorial Day in January where pupils from local schools meet and listen to the story of a survivor.
In 2020, they hosted 12 sessions with almost 900 students attending their programmes and some schools specifically requested that their students attend sessions at which he would be speaking personally, having heard about him from the previous year’s groups.
More recently, he took on the role of a telephone volunteer, calling AJR members to check in on them and see whether they needed any assistance as a part of his ongoing advocacy to and support of fellow Jewish refugees who experienced Nazi oppression.
The woman who helped organise the Queen’s funeral
Sophie Scowen, 35, from Chafford Hundred, will be awarded an MBE for services to the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Since 2018 Sophie has been responsible for the day-to-day development of the Greater London Authority (GLA)’s plans to support the delivery of Operation London Bridge.
From 2020 she managed the development and delivery of the event and crowd management plans. During delivery of Operation London Bridge she managed the multi-agency event liaison facility. The event liaison facility was based in Transport for London’s headquarters at Palestra House and had over 20 key agencies co-located.
Sophie managed the inter-agency operational delivery throughout the twelve-day period as well as managing the delivery of the GLA’s event and crowd management plans. Her work to develop the London Governance Structure transformed the inter-agency working and accountability within the capital.
She led the detailed planning of inter-agency operational plans to support the delivery of Operation London Bridge. This involved the development of over 200 individual plans across 20 agencies and included everything from barrier plans, transport plans, walking routes to first aid provision and detailed stewarding plans.
She is a mid-level manager at the GLA – but stepped well outside of the usual expectations at that level, showing “extraordinary leadership” in both the planning and delivery phase. Sophie joined the GLA in 2016 and managed the volunteer programme, Team London, leading the volunteer programme for the 2017 World Athletics Championships which included some 5000 volunteers.
Prior to the GLA, she worked on the volunteer programmes for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She has made an extraordinary contribution alongside caring responsibilities for her mother and grandparents.
She played a vital role in the planning phase of Operation London Bridge in overseeing the production of the Event Management Plan for the extensive activity in London. She led this work through several Covid scenarios and continually adapted the plans as the health situation changed.
She brought together GLA, DCMS and London partners to develop robust and safe plans, drawing on lessons learned from other events, that delivered a safe and enjoyable event for thousands.
Sophie said: “I am shocked and proud to be recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours. It was a privilege to play a role in the planning and delivery of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, which was such a momentous occasion for London and the country. I feel incredibly honoured to be awarded an MBE.”
The ‘most highly-skilled ornamental artist in the UK’
Robert Woodland, 79, from Loughton, will be awarded an MBE for services to art and to heritage crafts. His work can be seen in a variety of buildings across the country, including The Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, the Tower of London, Grand Lodge, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Kensington Palace, Bagshot Park and the Mandarin Hotel.
Robert has wood grain miles of corridors in the Palace of Westminster, uplifted countless London pub fronts with wood graining, marble painting and signwriting, restored pipe organ facades in over 25 historical churches, and undertaken numerous home & furniture commissions.
Recent work has included decorating and gilding organ façade pipes at York Minster, St Peter’s (Wolverhampton) and St James (Garlickhythe). He finds the smallest task as equally as fulfilling as the largest commission, devoting as much expertise and energy in demonstrating the painting of English oak to a school classroom as to restoring historical organ pipes at York Minster.
Painters’ Hall, the home of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, is a veritable advert for his unrivalled skills and all of the rooms have been re-grained, re-gilded or received specialist features such as trompe l’oeil columns, all by his own hand.
He has a passion to keep his trade alive and shares his knowledge openly with students from around the world, enthusiastically demonstrating his craft whenever he has a chance. He eagerly prepares to travel to children’s school events, fundraisers, and community enrichment events as well as to trade schools.
He is happiest of all when he has a classroom of students in a trade environment, and has travelled as far as Australia to lecture and demonstrate to full classes of painting instructors.
The MP being honoured for his 20 years of public service
Basildon and Billericay Conservative MP John Baron will receive a CBE in the honours list for his public and political service. Mr Baron said: “I am very touched and honoured to be recognised in this way. Being an MP is an immense privilege, and I have thoroughly enjoyed serving my constituency at Westminster for over 20 years.
“However, the MP is only the most visible part of a hard-working team, so my enormous thanks go to all my staff members, past and present, who have contributed to our work since I was first elected. This honour is very much for them too as well as all those who have been supportive in the constituency, and it has been pleasing to see our hard work also recognised by the growing trust shown to my team and I by the public at successive general elections.”
“Finally, I also thank my own family for being so supportive. I would not have been granted this very special honour without their assistance and care.”
READ NEXT:
