Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish has told of his pride at being knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, following his steadfast support for the Hillsborough families in their lengthy quest for justice.
The former player, manager and tireless charity campaigner joins Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, who becomes a dame in the list, which also features Network Rail’s chief executive Mark Carne, who receives a gong against a backdrop of huge disruption for train passengers in recent weeks.
The Department for Transport admitted the timing of the announcement of Mr Carne’s CBE for services to the rail industry is “unfortunate” but added that recent problems should not detract from his overall service.
As the NHS celebrates 70 years since its foundation, medics are recognised for their dedication, with health sector workers making up 12% of the 1,057 people honoured in the list.
The Remains Of The Day and Nanny McPhee star is joined on the list by fellow actor Tom Hardy, who is also recognised for services to drama, receiving a CBE, while Keira Knightley is made an OBE for services to drama and charity.
Sir Kenny who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, said he was “hugely proud to have accepted the accolade” for services to football, charity and the City of Liverpool.
The 67-year-old Glaswegian and his wife Marina have also helped raise millions of pounds for cancer treatment through the Marina Dalglish Appeal after she successfully battled breast cancer.
Following a wave of terror attacks which struck the UK in 2017, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley, who led the national response, is honoured with a knighthood.
On his retirement in March after 31 years in policing Mr Rowley was praised by Prime Minister Theresa May for his “dedication to protecting public safety and tackling the evils of terrorism”.
The brother of aid worker David Haines, who was murdered by Islamic State extremists, is made an OBE for his work against terrorism.
Mike Haines dedicated the honour, for voluntary service to tolerance and education in the UK and abroad, to his younger sibling, who was
beheaded by Islamic State extremists in 2014 after being taken hostage in Syria.
Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of chemical company Ineos who this year topped the Sunday Times rich list with £21.05 billion, receives a knighthood for services to business and investment.
Defoe said he felt “mixed emotions”, with the award coming almost a year after the death of six-year-old football mascot Bradley Lowery, with whom the player struck up a strong friendship as the little boy battled a rare childhood cancer.
In the musical world, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite is honoured with an MBE, under her real name Niomi McLean-Daley, for services to music, while Mobo Awards founder Kanya King receives a CBE for services to music and culture.
Japan-born Nobel prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, knighted for his services to literature, said he was “deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy”.
Renowned war correspondent Kate Adie is made a CBE for services to media, while Stacey Dooley, known for her BBC Three investigative series covering topics ranging from the fight against Isis to the abortion debate, receives an MBE for services to broadcasting.
Among the politicians honoured are Conservative MPs Eleanor Laing and Bernard Jenkin, awarded a damehood and a knighthood respectively for their political and public service, while Labour’s Louise Ellman has also been made a dame for parliamentary and political services.
Holocaust survivor Ber Helfgott, also known as Ben, is knighted for services to Holocaust remembrance and education, one of nearly three-quarters of those on the honours list deemed to have undertaken outstanding work in or for their local community.
Veronica Donovan, a consultant midwife at Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is made an OBE for services to midwifery, while palliative cancer care specialist Debra Smith receives a BEM for for services to nursing.
In the business sphere Judy Naake, who made millions selling St Tropez self-tanning products, initially from the back of her car, receives an MBE for services to entrepreneurship, the community and philanthropy.
Sister Imelda Poole, president of European anti-trafficking network Renate, receives an MBE for services to combating modern slavery.
Howard Tucker is awarded a CBE for services to international justice for his past work as a member of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
A former policeman in South Wales, he went to work in Bosnia to help bring people to trial for war crimes committed during the conflicts there in the 1990s.
Of the total number recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year, 210 have been made an OBE, 392 an MBE, and 318 awarded a BEM.
Forty-nine percent of the honorees are women, while 10% of all those on the list are from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.
