Queen's list honours the region's finest

Crispian Strachan, 52, Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, has been awarded a CBE for his work fighting crime in the region.

He said he was "immensely proud to lead a hard-working force which serves the people of the North-East".

Mr Strachan came to the North-East in 1998 after a stint as Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police. He received the Queen's Police Medal in 1996.

Two members of his force picked up accolades - PC Helen Graham, who received the Queen's Police Medal for her work as a beat manager in Wallsend and Douglas Knott, commandant of the special constabulary, who got an MBE.

Derek Harrison, a retired police officer from Durham City said it was a "big shock" to receive an MBE for 31 years of service. Mr Harrison, 76, joined Durham Constabulary in 1945 after leaving the Navy.

A special constable in his fifth decade as a volunteer pofficer has received an MBE.

Peter Prunty, of Langbaurgh, Middlesbrough, joined the town's specials in 1963.

PC David Stockport, 54, based at Knaresborough, the joint branch board secretary of North Yorkshire Police Federation, receives the MBE.

Joe Watson, 76, a volunteer and charity fundraiser, from Stanley, County Durham, was stunned to hear of his MBE. It was given for his work in the community, particularly at the Willow Burn Hospice, in Lanchester, County Durham.

Working with victims of domestic violence for 29 years led to Ann McMaster, 59, being awarded the MBE. She recently retired from East Durham Women's Refuge but is still chairman on the East Durham Domestic Violence Forum, both in Peterlee.

Jackie Taylor, who helps to transform Saltburn, east Cleveland, with flowers has been awarded the MBE.

A man who put his life at risk to rescue others in danger at sea receives an MBE after recently retiring from service. Richard Constantine has spent the past 20 years working for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

North-East teacher who became Sting CBE

GORDON Sumner, a former North-East teacher and son of a milkman, who went on to become one of the world's most successful singers, can now add a Commander of the British Empire medal to his hoard of awards.

Rock musician Sting, from Wallsend, was once a teacher in Newcastle, educating 11-year-olds by day and playing jazz with the Newcastle Big Band by night. His nickname came from the black and yellow striped top he wore.

On the prompting of his first wife, actress Frances Tomelty, he left his job to move to London to seek work as a full-time musician.

It was a brave move for the 25-year-old married father - his headteacher once warned him he would lose his pension - but now, with seven houses scattered around the world, a fortune estimated atbetween £85m to £200m and musical recognition across the world, it is clearly not a decision he came to regret.

One of his songs alone, Every Breath You Take, is reputed to earn him £715 a day from airplay on US radio.

While he can split his time between homes including his 400-year-old Tuscany farmhouse, complete with its own vineyard and olive groves, his Malibu beach house or his Jacobean manor house in Wiltshire, he claims not to have forgotten his North-East roots and is an ardent Newcastle United supporter.

But Sting has found more fame for his causes. It was partly as a result of his efforts that the Brazilian government created a protected area of rainforest the size of Switzerland. He is an active Amnesty International supporter.

Despite Sting's dizzying success - in his band the Police, which split in 1986, and then as a solo artist - the 51-year-old is a keen advocate of family life.

In interviews, he says his greatest pleasure is spending time with his six children, two from his first marriage and four with actress and film producer Trudie Styler.

Bishop's 'delight' at award

THE former Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, has been awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

The clergyman, an outspoken opponent of the war on Iraq, who retired in April, was given the honour for his services to the governance of the Church of England and regional affairs.

He said yesterday: "I am of course delighted to be included in the Honours List, particularly as it reflects on the many colleagues with whom I have worked and emphasises my continued interest and support for the renewal and regeneration of the North-East and my desire that the Church will focus on its service to the nation."

The bishop, 67, spent almost a decade in the North-East as the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England. He was less controversial than his predecessor, David Jenkins, though still an outspoken commentator on issues of the day, be it female priests, who he backed, to far-right politics, which he didn't.

The married father-of-three, who now lives in Kent, is probably best remembered for his campaign to see the Lindisfarne Gospels returned to the North-East.

Though that failed, two facsimile copies have been placed in Durham Cathedral and on Lindisfarne.

He headed the campaign for a directly-elected assembly for the region and was a regular attender of the House of Lords.

In March, he claimed the invasion of Iraq was not "morally justified" and called on Tony Blair and George Bush to display patience.

Cool head in farms crisis

THE man who helped steer the country through the foot-and-mouth epidemic two years ago, Ben Gill, is awarded a knighthood in the honours list.

Sir Ben, the North Yorkshire-based president of the National Farmers' Union, was awarded the honour for his services to agriculture, conservation and the community.

The 53-year-old farms 360 acres near Easingwold, including cereals, sugar beet and sheep.

He was elected NFU president in 1998 after previously serving as deputy and vice-president, and chairman of the livestock and wool committee.

"It is a great honour to have such an award made, and something that I greatly appreciate," he said.

"But I recognise that it has been made to me as the leader of a highly professional organisation with a back-up capability that is second to none and which is the envy and role model of many.

"Without such an organisation, it would not have been possible to achieve all that we have achieved over the years."

Sir Ben received a CBE in 1996 for services to agriculture. He is married to Carolyn and has four sons.

Author's chapter of success

NORTH-EAST children's author Anne Fine has been awarded a CBE.

The 55-year-old Children's Laureate, who lives in Barnard Castle, County Durham, said last night she was "very delighted but enormously surprised".

"If you have had a career that you have really enjoyed for 30 years, as I have, it's really hard to realise that you must have done some good for other people as well," she said.

"I'm not part of the Establishment. I'm quite outspoken and there is something quite isolating about living in Barnard Castle, so this has come as a shock."

The mother-of-two, who lives with her partner, Richard Warren, famously had her novel, Madame Doubtfire, turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, starring Robin Williams.

She was made Children's Laureate in 2001, only the second author to receive the honour, after Quentin Blake.

She has written more than 40 books including Goggle Eyes and Flour Babies, which both won awards.

Man who created living history

A HAULAGE millionaire who invested thousands in a wartime theme museum has been awarded an MBE for his service to heritage and tourism in North Yorkshire.

In 1986, Stan Johnson spent £750,000 of his own money on creating a modern history museum near Malton - Eden Camp - which has since become a nationally renowned attraction.

It exhibits many Second World War items within 29 huts, which in 1942 made up a prisoner-of- war camp where more than 1,000 Italians were kept.

The camp was left derelict after the war until Mr Johnson, a local businessman and former Green Howards corporal, bought it with no particular purpose in mind.

It was not until three Italian prisoners came back and asked if they could look around the site that he decided to turn it into a living history museum.

The museum's director, Steve Jaques, thinks Mr Johnson thoroughly deserves the honour.

"He didn't need to invest all that money and time into the museum, but he did it out of the kindness of his heart," he said.

"He has managed to create a living tribute to all those who have links with both the first and the second world wars."

On hearing he had been awarded an MBE, Mr Johnson, who is out of the country, said: "I am absolutely delighted - it is a real honour."

Now head will always be 'Sir'

A HEADTEACHER who is retiring this year will be Sir for the rest of his life.

John Rowling, of Nunthorpe Secondary School, Middlesbrough, is receiving a knighthood for his services to the profession.

He, has been teaching North-East youngsters for four decades and spent the past 19 years in Nunthorpe.

Sir John, who lives in Guisborough, said: "I don't want to diminish the honour but this award is just for doing the very best we can for students. I was absolutely stunned when I got the letter."

He added: "It really has been a wonderful career and I am not exaggerating when I say I have looked forward to every day for the past 40 years.

"But whatever I have achieved, I couldn't have done it without the cooperation of my colleagues."

North's awards

North Yorkshire and Teesside

KNIGHTS BACHELOR

Arthur Benjamin Norman Gill, CBE. President, National Farmers' Union. For services to Agriculture, Conservation and the Community. (York)

John Reginald Rowling. Headteacher, Nunthorpe School, Middlesbrough. For services to Education. (Guisborough, east Cleveland)

ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER

Charlotte Elizabeth Manley, OBE. Private secretary and treasurer to the Duke of York.

ORDER OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE: Christopher Paul Brearley. Director, methodology and information, Social Services Inspectorate, Department of Health. (Selby, North Yorkshire)

OBE: Professor Dianna Joy Bowles. Weston Chair of Biochemistry, University of York. For services to Plant Sciences. (near Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire); Moira Jean Britton. Chief executive, Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust. For services to the NHS. (Yarm, Cleveland); Ian Gillett Carmichael. Actor. For services to Drama. (Whitby, North Yorkshire); Carol McCletchie. For services to Tyne and Wear Employer Coalition and the New Deal. (Hartlepool)

MBE: Francis Houlston Annett. Education research manager, Learning and Skills Council. For services to Training and Education in the North East. (Middlesbrough, Cleveland); The Reverend Philip John Carrington. Hospital Chaplain, South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust. (Middlesbrough, Cleveland); Richard Francis Constantine. Lately coxswain/mechanic. For services to the RNLI, Scarborough. (Scarborough, North Yorkshire); Stanley James Johnson. For services to Heritage and Tourism in North Yorkshire. (Malton, North Yorkshire); Betty Joan Patchett. For services to Skipton Hospitals' League of Friends. (Skipton, North Yorkshire); Peter Joseph Prunty. Force Commandant, Cleveland Special Constabulary. For services to the Police. (Middlesbrough); Marion Simon, JP. For services to Trade Unions and Workplace Learning Services, Yorkshire and Humberside. (Harrogate, North Yorkshire); John David Stockport. Constable, North Yorkshire Police. For services to the Police. (Northallerton, North Yorkshire); Jacqueline Taylor. For services to the community of Saltburn, east Cleveland. (Saltburn).

Tyne and Wear

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE: Gordon Matthew Sumner (Sting), Singer and songwriter, services to the music industry. (Wiltshire. Born Tyne and Wear)

OBE: Professor Philip David Lowe. Professor of Rural Economy and founder of the Centre for Rural Economy at the University of Newcastle. For services to the Rural Economy. (Morpeth, Northumberland); John Squires, DL. For services to the community, especially the Tyne and Wear Foundation in the North-East. (Riding Mill, Northumberland); Bernard Whiting. Business change manager, Inland Revenue. (Newcastle); Ashley John Graham Winter. Chairman, Learning and Skills Council for Tyne and Wear. For services to Business in the North East. (Corbridge, Northumberland)

MBE: Brian Gordon Burns. Strategic manager, mail and distribution, Inland Revenue. (Newcastle); Rebecca Desiree Elsy, JP. For services to the Citizens' Advice Bureau and to the community, South Tyneside. (South Shields, Tyne and Wear); James Fawcett, JP. For services to the community and to the Licensed Taxi Trade in Newcastle. (Newcastle): Frank Robert George Wilson. Boys' Brigade leader. For services to Young People in Sunderland. (Sunderland) .

Northumberland

ORDER OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE: John Crispian Strachan, QPM, DL. Chief Constable, Northumbria Police. For services to the Police. (Northumberland)

OBE: Thomas Walker Sale. For services to the community in Alnwick, Northumberland. (Alnwick)

MBE: William Edward Cromar. Secretary, National Fire Services Benevolent Fund. For services to Fire Officers and their Families. (Morpeth, Northumberland); Dianne Crowe. Specialist gynaecology nurse, Hexham General Hospital, Northumberland. For services to Women's Health. (Hexham); Elizabeth Margaret Davidson. Personal secretary, Inland Revenue. (Alnwick, North-umberland); Charles Douglas Knott. Lately Chief Commandant, Northumbria Police. For services to the Police. (Hexham, Northumberland).

Durham

ORDER OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE: The Right Reverend Anthony Michael Arnold Turnbull. Lately Bishop of Durham and formerly Bishop of Rochester. For services to the Governance of the Church of England and to Regional Affairs. (Sandwich, Kent)

OBE: Anne Fine. Children's laureate. For services to Literature. (Durham)

MBE: Kenneth Brown. Business manager, medical benefits section, International Pension Centre, Department for Work and Pensions. (Consett, Durham); Derek Harrison. Branch secretary, National Association of Retired Police Officers, Durham. For services to the Police. (Durham)

Ann McMaster. For services to the Victims of Domestic Violence through the East Durham Women's Refuge and East Durham Domestic Violence Forum. (Hutton Henry, Durham); Joseph Callander Watson. For services to the community, especially the Willow Burn Hospice in Lanchester, County Durham. (Stanley, Durham).