MBEs

FORMER Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Eric James Eames, is recognised for his work in setting up the Ackers Trust in Sparkbrook.

Now 92, he receives the MBE for services to the community in Birmingham.

Mr Eames, who became Lord Mayor in 1974, saw the potential to turn a derelict patch of land used as a playground by local children into an area for constructive activity.

The Ackers Trust was inaugurated as a charity in 1981, and expanded to provide an outdoor climbing wall, 100-metre ski slope, residential facility, and football and cricket pavilion. Mr Eames, who remains on The Ackers board, said: “It still serves a very useful purpose.”

Deirdre Figueiredo, the director of Birmingham-based educational charity Craftspace, becomes an MBE for services to the visual arts. Born in 1965 in Tanzania, she emigrated to the UK with her family in 1981. In the summer, Deirdre braved the height of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square to do her one-hour stint as part of Anthony Gormley’s memorable One and Other project.

The director of Birmingham independent television production company Maverick TV, Edward Jonathan Turpie, is honoured for services to international trade. The Digbeth-based company, formed in 1993, produces TV programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies, 10 Years Younger and How To Look Good Naked for the world market. He said: “Maverick has grown to the point where we now have offices in London and New York, and this award is in recognition of that work.”

Founder of the Birmingham Crisis Centre, John Ankcorn, receives the MBE for more than three decades of voluntary work with victims of domestic violence.

The chartered surveyor helped establish the city’s first crisis centre in Heathfield Road, Handsworth, in 1981, with a second centre being opened by the Princess Royal in 1987.

The Birmingham Crisis Centre, formed a year later, now deals with more than 400 cases a year.

Anna-Marie Hale, matron of trauma services at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, receives an MBE for services to healthcare.

She helps care for injured servicemen and women and has also visited troops in Afghanistan.

James Armitage receives the MBE for services to the Royal Mail and community in the West Midlands while Sharon Gail Bailey, head of service learning disabilities at Birmingham City Council, is honoured for services to local government.

There is an MBE for Barry Clewer, campaigner for the elderly as chairman of the Birmingham Advisory Council of Older People, with similar recognition for Patricia Ann Davies for voluntary service to young people in Brownhills, Walsall.

Former Warwickshire and England cricketer John Jameson, who represented his county from 1960 until 1976, is honoured for services to cricket.

He remains on Warwickshire’s club committee.

Former councillor, now Alderman Fred Perry, 83, becomes an MBE for services to the community in Tipton.

Albert Leslie Wills, who received the Queen’s Fire Service Medal in 1985 while Assistant Chief Officer at West Midlands Fire, is honoured for services to the local community.

Eric Arthur Stott is recognised for services to the community in the West Midlands while MBE’s also go to Amir Waseem, an officer with HM Revenue and Customs in Brierley Hill, and Maureen Woodcock, former non-executive director at Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust.

Scott Michael Bradbury, an active member of the Sea Cadets Corps, gets an MBE for services to the community in Tamworth.

Pauline Pilkington, director of children’s services at Walsall council, is also awarded an MBE.

Other honours > > >

Others...

ACTING Det Chief Insp Dave Cook is honoured with the Queen’s Police Medal for his work with West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit.

He led the inquiry into a group of men involved in a plot to supply equipment and funds to overseas terror groups and a failed plan to kidnap and behead a soldier. Mr Cook has more than 29 years service with West Midlands Police.

HEALTH chief David Nicholson is awarded the Order of the Bath after a career working in mental healthcare and hospitals before rising to become regional director for the Eastern and West Midlands from 2001.

As chief executive of Birmingham and the Black Country Strategic Health Authority, Mr Nicholson shaped healthcare in the region and greater Midlands from 2003 until 2006. He was made a CBE in 2004.