A bumper array of local people representing the arts, charities, sport and education feature in the Derbyshire section of the King’s New Year Honours List 2025 They are recipients of a variety of awards, including for Tony Butler, executive director of Derby Museums Trust made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to the arts and Brell Ewart, who becomes an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire), for services to the community.
They are among more than 1,200 people from across the UK to receive honours across all sectors, with particular commendation to role models in sport, healthcare, academia and voluntary service.
Among well-known nationals figures being honoured is former England manager Gareth Southgate, who receives a knighthood for services to Association Football. Beyond the pitch, Southgate has been actively involved in charitable work including supporting the Prince’s Trust, a youth charity that helps young people get into education, training, and employment.
The 2025 list awards a Companion of Honour, of which there are only 65 recipients at any time, to author and screenwriter Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for author Dame Jacqueline Wilson, and a Knight Grand Cross for Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, formerly Chair of Cancer Research.
Notable CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) recipients include gardening expert and charity fundraiser Alan Titchmarsh, and actors Sarah Lancashire and Carey Mulligan.
The oldest recipient is Second World War Mosquito pilot Colin Bell, who is 103 years old and receives a British Empire Medal for his charitable fundraising and public speaking about WWII Bomber Command.
The list also features two further centenarians – George Kelly, at 101, who receives an MBE for services to the Royal British Legion and to Royal Air Force Veterans and Roy Gibson, 100, awarded a BEM for services to space.
The youngest recipients are aged 18. Mikalya Beames receives a BEM for her charitable fundraising for children with cancer in Oxfordshire and Paralympian William Ellard receives an MBE after winning three medals including gold at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
The former chief executive of Rolls-Royce, Warren East, has been given a knighthood for his services to the economy and to net zero. He stepped down from his RR role at the end of 2022. And actor Stephen Fry receives a knighthood for his work on mental health awareness. He is an honorary fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrists and President of the mental health charity Mind since 2011.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Each and every day, ordinary people go out and do extraordinary things for their communities. They represent the very best of the UK and that core value of service which I put at the centre of everything this government does.
“The New Year Honours List celebrates more of these unsung heroes, and I thank them for their incredible contribution.”
Local recipients include:
Tony Butler OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire)
Tony Butler who has been awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List
(Image: Derby Museums’ Trust)
As executive director of Derby Museums Trust since 2013, Tony Butler has overseen huge changes affecting the sector in the city. In 2021, the trust opened the Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill (part of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site) following an £18 million redevelopment. He says he is “delighted” to have received the honour.
The ground breaking project involved public participation and also harnessed the energy of businesses, the community and the voluntary sector. The museum has gone on to be a finalist in the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022 Awards and received a Special Commendation in the European Museum of the Year Awards 2024.
Working in museums for more than 25 years, Mr Butler began his career at the National Postal Museum and identifies as a social history curator at heart. He sits on the UK National Museums Director’s Council executive committee, is a member of the English Civic Museums Network steering group and is a committee member at the Midlands and East arm of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
He was previously Director of the Museum of East Anglian Life (now the Food Museum) where he led a major capital development project and rebuilt the organisation as the first social enterprise based in a UK museum. In 2010, Tony founded the Happy Museum Project, exploring how museums can respond to the challenges of climate change and work towards a more sustainable future. Since its inception, the project has worked directly with more than 50 museums and cultural organisations.
Mr Butler said: “I’m delighted to be awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list. It’s a brilliant recognition and reminder of the way the work of Derby Museums is admired in our city and the rest of the country. Derby Museums is for the thinker and maker in all of us, and in the years to come we’ll continue to inspire the next generation to see themselves as creative beings.”
Marvin Cooke DL OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire)
Marvin Cooke during his time as managing director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK)
(Image: Derby Telegraph)
Former executive vice-president of Toyota Motor Europe, Marvin Cooke, who is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Derbyshire, receives an OBE for his services to automotive manufacturing.
Mr Cooke, who lives in Derbyshire, was managing director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, based at the company’s Burnaston plant between 2017 and 2020.
Since he left his 30-year career contributing to Toyota’s expansion, growth and continued success in the UK and Europe, Mr Cooke has become Professor of Enterprise at the University of Derby. He is involved in driving forward employability, enterprise and business development as the university prepares for the opening of its new city centre-based Derby Business School building in 2025.
Wendy Daunt OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire)
The services of Wendy Daunt to deaf children and to young adult communities in Derby and Derbyshire have resulted in her becoming an OBE.
Ms Daunt is a deaf studies teacher and is the archivist at and historian at the Royal School for the Deaf in Ashbourne Road, Derby.
Dawn Astle MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
Living in the Swadlincote area, Dawn Astle, 56, daughter of the late professional footballer Jeff Astle, becomes an MBE for services to footballers with dementia.
He father passed away at 59 after five years with dementia. In 2014, Dawn began the Justice for Jeff Campaign and, a year, later set up The Jeff Astle Foundation, a charitable and non-profit making organisation to raise awareness and push research into brain injury in sport and help those who had suffered a similar injury.
As a result of her work, a recent study by a team at The University of Glasgow has provided evidence that ex-professional footballers are 3.5 times more likely to get dementia, five times more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, four times more likely to be diagnosed with motor neurone disease and twice more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease than non-footballers are.
Ms Astle’s work has also encouraged other elite sports, such as rugby league and rugby union, to look further into head injuries and treatment protocols and the affects and risks they may have in regards to these conditions.
David Ellis MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
Dave Ellis celebrates his victory with guide Luke Pollard in Paris 2024
(Image: ParalympicsGB/David Pearce)
Born in Derby, David Ellis, 38, has become an MBE for his services to the paratriathlon. He won gold in the men’s individual para triathlon visually impaired event at the Paris Paralympics.
His Paralympic career began as a solely swimming athlete at Beijing in 2008 and he has now represented Paralympics GB three times, twice as a paratriathlete.
After disappointment at the Tokyo Paralympics he went onto win 10 straight gold medals in the paratriathlon including a world title win in Abu Dhabi, a European title in Spain and a Commonwealth Games gold on home soil in Birmingham.
Brell Ewart DL MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
Sir Steve Redgrave meets Whitehouse Construction chairman Brell Ewart, right, when the firm celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017
(Image: Three Six Seven Nine Photography)
Seventy-five-year-old Brell Ewart, of Bradley, is also made an MBE in the honours list – for his services to the community in Derbyshire.
Mr Ewart is a Deputy Lieutenant for Derbyshire, who is recognised across the county as an outstanding individual totally committed to service to his community, whose business and voluntary work has been central to preserving the history of and supporting the people of Derbyshire for five decades.
He started his construction business 45 years ago with £200 and now has a multi-million per annum turnover employing 120 full-time staff. In that time, he has forged strong links with the Armed Forces, assisting the transition of service personnel into civilian employment and supporting veterans’ charities including the Royal British Legion (RBL) for which he has been Ashbourne’s President since 2016.
Mr Ewart’s continual fundraising for the RBL resulted in a donation of £6,700 to the Defence National Rehabilitation Centre.
He has also rescued two ex LMS Pacific locomotives – the Princess Margaret Rose and the Duchess of Sutherland – and founded, and currently chairs, the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust (PRCLT), and donated two tank engines into the charitable trust and has been a keystone in securing the arrival of several special coaches and locomotives into the PRCLT.
Lisa Haythorne MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
Lisa Haythorne, pictured at the front of the picture, is with staff and volunteers at Derbyshire Law Centre when it was shortlisted for the Law Society’s prestigious Excellence Awards 2019
(Image: David James)
Becoming an MBE means that Lisa Haythorne’s services to vulnerable and homeless people has been recognised. Ms Haythorne, 51, who lives in the Chesterfield area, is dedicated to helping the most vulnerable people to find specialist legal advice and access justice.
Her work at the Derbyshire Law Centre, Sheffield and District Law Society, the Elm Foundation and with local universities provides inspiration to legal students, colleagues, councillors and clients.
Ms Haythorne advocates for those who need help the most and gives a voice to the people who are impacted by poverty, discrimination and deprivation. She acted as a spokesperson for the Derbyshire Law Centre, forming a tight network of collaborative support with social housing landlords, councils, social welfare charities and community groups.
Through this pattern of working she helped to establish a holistic approach to client care that the centre is now known for and means that it receives funding from all six local district councils as well as private funding targeting homelessness and emergency housing.
Joe Heeney MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
The founder of adult drug and alcohol treatment charity Resolve – Joe Heeney, who lives in the Peak District – has become an MBE for his services to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
He founded Resolve in Hertfordshire in 2008 after experiencing his own drug and alcohol issues. Joe had worked for 14 years in the fire service. He retired in 2023 from the charity and lives in the Peak District with his wife. He now enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family and friends.
Sara Kenyon MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
Services to midwifery over many years have led Sara Kenyon, of Long Eaton, to become an MBE. Ms Kenyon, 66, is the only midwife elected as a Fellow of both the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
She was a founding member and chair of Antenatal Results and Choices, now established for more than 20 years. Overall, 42% of her publications are in the top 25% most cited documents, and 86% in the top 25% of journals worldwide.
Ms Kenyon led the Birmingham Symptom specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS) endorsed by NHS England, the Royal Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and Midwives (RCM). As a result, approximately 35,000 women have been assessed sooner than previously, and she won a Health Service Journal Patient Safety Award.
Robert Graham BEM (British Empire Medal)
Receiving a BEM is Robert Graham, who lives in the Hope Valley area, for his services to charity and the community in Derbyshire.