Queen recognises Brighton charity chief and public servants in honours list

A charity chief and public servants are among the local names in an honours list that includes knighthoods for tennis champion Andy Murray and Olympic runner Mo Farah.

Sarah Brennan, 58, from Brighton, who runs the mental health charity Young Minds, becomes an OBE for services to children and young people’s mental health.

Andrew Young, 67, who was strategy director at the Pensions Regulator, having joined the Brighton-based organisation in 2009, becomes an OBE for services to pension policy and pensioners.

Detective Constable Louise Pye, 47, started her career as a police officer in Brighton and has been instrumental in caring for thousands of families of the victims of serious crimes or disasters. She has been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal.

A British Empire Medal has been awarded to Mark Walder, a special sergeant in the British Transport Police, for voluntary service. His patch with the railway police force includes Brighton and Hove and the trains and stations used by thousands of commuters from the area.

And Jim Duffy, the driving force behind Entrepreneurial Spark, the business incubator which has one of its 12 bases in Preston Road, Brighton, becomes an MBE.

Sarah Brennan became chief executive of Young Minds in May 2008, having acted as its interim chief executive for almost a year before that.

She has spent more than 25 years as a champion of young people’s causes, starting out in youth and community work, teaching and youth counselling.

Her previous roles include director of services at the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, before becoming chief executive of Motiv8, another young people’s charity.

Andy Young is an actuary from Glasgow who has spent years shaping pensions policy, often to help those like the BHS pensioners, who have been let down by their employer.

He helped to design the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and later carried out the Young Review to help members of pension schemes not covered by the PPF.

Mr Young has served on a number of representative bodies such as the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the International Actuarial Association.

Pensions expert Henry Tapper said: “Andy is no ordinary actuary. We sometimes underestimate the difference that a few people can make on the way things work. Andy is one of those few people.

“For the tens of thousands of people whose pensions are paid by the PPF, for the millions that will enjoy better state pensions from 2016 and hopefully for those of us who get better private pensions as a result of the ‘defined ambition’ pension, we have Andy (at least in part) to thank.

“He’s a one-off and Britain is a better place because of him.”

Detective Constable Louise Pye – known as Lou to her colleagues – has served as a member of Sussex Police for 29 years, specialising in family liaison.

As a young PC she started her policing career as a patrol officer in Brighton before joining Brighton CID (Criminal Investigation Department).

Detective Constable Pye helped bring in one of Britain’s first teams of police family liaison officers. She started a training programme in 1998 for officers whose roles include liaising with the families of victims of serious crime or disasters. In 1999 Sussex became one of the first police forces to operate such a team.

Recently, she has led and continues to work with more than 20 officers who are supporting the families of the 11 victims of the Shoreham air crash in August 2015. Six of the victims were from Brighton and Hove.

Special Sergeant Mark Walder, who was awarded the British Empire Medal, said: “I didn’t join for recognition and I certainly didn’t expect this. I am humbled by this honour but particularly of the fact that colleagues and ex-colleagues have gone out of their way to initiate it.

“I have accepted this honour for them, my family, my friends and my employer who have supported me throughout my career.”

As well as his commitment to policing, Special Sergeant Walder volunteers as a community first responder with the ambulance service.

He said: “I love what I do as much now as when I joined. It is volunteering like no other and I would encourage more people to be bold, take the step and become a special constable.

“The police service can really benefit from the skills people outside the service bring.”

Special Constabulary Chief Officer Ben Clifford said: “Mark has been a special with us since January 2005, volunteering many hours as a police officer – 529 in the last year alone – to keep the travelling public in Sussex safe.

“As a special sergeant he has given much time and effort over many years to mentor and support other special constables based at Brighton and Gatwick, helping us get the best from our team there.

“This award is richly deserved recognition of such exemplary voluntary service.”

BTP Chief Constable Paul Crowther said: “I thank Mark for the countless hours he donates each year to help serve the rail community and I am delighted his contribution has been recognised with this award.”

Jim Duffy, who founded Entrepreneurial Spark five years ago, has helped more than 600 fledgling businesses, including dozens at its base in Preston Road, Brighton.

Mr Duffy, who plans to step down next summer, was made an MBE for his outstanding contribution to the business community.

Entrepreneurial Spark co-founder Lucy-Rose Walker said: “What Jim has done for the business community is second-to-none. He’s not only an inspiration but a brilliant role model.

“We will miss Jim dearly. His legacy is rooted in everything we do now and there will always be sprinkles of his wit, creativity and that essential spark in everything we do in the future.”

In total 1,197 people have been recognised in the New Year Honours List
● 1,047 people have been awarded a BEM or been made an MBE or OBE – 322 BEMs, 503 MBEs and 222 OBEs
● 74 per cent of the recipients have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity
● The list includes 603 successful women, representing just over 50 per cent of the total
● 9.3 per cent of the recipients are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background, the highest number in an honours list
● 8.5 per cent of those being honoured consider themselves to have a disability

Among the well-known names in the latest honours list are actor Mark Rylance, musician Ray Davies of The Kinks and comedian Ken Dodd who are all knighted.

Actress Patricia Routledge becomes a dame and the artist Chris Ofili and The Times cartoonist Peter Brookes become CBEs. Fashion designer Victoria Beckham – Posh Spice – becomes an OBE as does actor Tim Pigott Smith and actress Helen McCrory. The 1960s pop star Marty Wilde and actor Clive Rowe become MBEs.