Post Office hero Alan Bates honoured with knighthood

Alan Bates was awarded a knighthood in the King’s Birthday Honours on Friday after his landmark campaign for justice for hundreds of wrongly convicted postmasters.

The former subpostmaster was honoured alongside former prime minister Gordon Brown, artist Tracey Emin and actress Imelda Staunton, and hundreds of community heroes.

The list celebrated charity fundraisers and activists alongside celebrities and sports stars, including knighthoods for cyclist Mark Cavendish and Mail writer Niall Ferguson, and a damehood for fashion designer Anya Hindmarch.

The highest award went to Mr Brown, who said he was ‘slightly embarrassed’ to be made a Companion of Honour and would prefer to recognise ‘unsung, local heroes’.

Perhaps the most popular award was the knighthood for Mr Bates, whose legal battle against the Post Office was dramatised by ITV earlier this year.

Sir Alan, who had previously rejected an OBE while Post Office boss Paula Vennells still retained a CBE, said he was ‘honoured’ by the knighthood. 

He actually learned about it while Ms Vennells gave evidence to the public inquiry into the scandal, in which hundreds of postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud while the Post Office covered up problems with the real culprit – its new IT system.

She has been formally stripped of her CBE following the Horizon IT scandal, which has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.

Sir Alan insisted his knighthood for services to justice was on behalf of the hundreds of subpostmasters affected by the scandal and the ‘horrendous things that have happened’.

He laughed off claims he was a hero, but said he had received hundreds of messages of support, adding: ‘A lot of people do seem to think I should receive some sort of recognition for the work that I’ve done for them or on their behalf.’

In the sporting world, cyclist Mr Cavendish was given a knighthood and there were CBEs for fellow athlete Chris Boardman and former Liverpool footballer and Mail columnist Graeme Souness.

Dame Jenny Abramsky, the first female editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, was appointed a Dame Grand Cross and retired High Court judge Lord Etherton was appointed a Knight Grand Cross.

There were also damehoods for London Stock Exchange CEO Julia Hoggett, honour killings campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera and knighthoods for cancer drug researcher Professor Tony Kouzarides and HSBC chairman Mark Tucker.

Political satirist Armando Iannucci, actor Alex Jennings, novelist Monica Ali and broadcaster Alan Yentob each received CBEs. 

Broadcaster Tania Bryer, BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones, poet and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera were given OBEs.

And there were MBEs for Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, Countdown lexicographer Susie Dent, Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, Boney M singer Liz Mitchell, Strictly stars Amy Dowden and Rose Ayling Ellis, and M People singer Heather Small.

Hundreds of volunteers and community heroes were honoured for their ‘outstanding work’, including forces veteran double amputee who climbed Everest and three fathers who raised more than £1.4million for charity after losing their daughters to suicide.

Gurkha ex-soldier Hari Budha Magar became the first double above-the-knee amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest last year, 13 years after an explosion while serving in Afghanistan.

While Andy Airey, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen started Three Dads Walking in memory of their daughters – Sophie, 29, 17-year-old Beth and Emily, 19.

Charity fundraiser Harold Jones, 100, was the oldest recipient and there were eight awards for volunteers with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as it celebrates its 200th anniversary.

Veterans’ charities were also honoured, including a CBE for the former director general of Royal British Legion, Charles Byrne.

Patrick and Karen McCourt, who have fostered 331 children, were awarded British Empire Medals.

Award for modest Gordon

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown said last night he was ‘slightly embarrassed’ to receive a top award in the King’s Birthday Honours, writes Neil Sears.

An MP for 32 years until he left Parliament in 2015, Mr Brown is to be made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour ‘for public and charitable services’.

There are just 65 members of the Order at any one time, with only those to have made major contributions to the arts, science, medicine or government admitted.

Mr Brown, 73, pictured, who was PM for three years up to 2010, said last night: ‘I feel slightly embarrassed, as the opportunity to serve is an honour in itself.’

He added he preferred ‘to recognise all those brilliant, unsung, local heroes who quietly and selflessly give their time to contribute to the vitality of our communities’.

The wife of former Tory leader William Hague, Ffion Hague, 56, has been made a Dame ‘for public service and to business’. 

She met her husband working as his assistant when he served as Secretary of State for Wales.

Taxpayers may raise an eyebrow at the news that civil servants honoured include Jim Harra, First Permanent Secretary at HMRC, made Knight Commander of the Order of Bath.

Last year there was fury that taxpayers phoning HMRC for help with tax returns waited on hold for an average of more than half an hour.

An ally of Sir Keir Starmer in his battle with Labour’s Corbynite wing, Wendy Nichols, has become an officer of the Order of the British Empire ‘for public service’.

Top Ministry of Justice civil servant Antonia Romeo becomes a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath.