New Year Honours 2020: Newton-John and England cricketers on list

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Olivia Newton-John, Ben StokesImage source, Getty Images

Singer Olivia Newton-John has been made a dame in a New Year Honours list that recognises four members of England's Cricket World Cup winning squad.

All-rounder Ben Stokes, man of the match in the victory against New Zealand at Lord's in July, becomes an OBE, while team captain Eoin Morgan receives the higher CBE award.

Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and batsman and England Test captain Joe Root become MBEs, and coach Trevor Bayliss an OBE.

Sir Elton John is also on the list.

The singing superstar, who was knighted in 1998, said he was "humbled and honoured" to join the elite companions of honour, external, an order restricted to a maximum 65 members, for services to music and charity.

And Queen drummer Roger Taylor is made an OBE in the year his band's biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, set cinema box office records.

Image source, Getty Images
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Roger Taylor of Queen becomes an OBE

Three television cookery stars appear - Nigel Slater becomes an OBE, and Nadiya Hussain and Ainsley Harriott MBEs.

Another familiar face on TV, Gabby Logan, becomes an MBE for services to sports broadcasting and promoting women's sport.

Female sporting success is also celebrated with an OBE for world taekwondo champion Jade Jones, and MBEs for netballers Serena Guthrie and Joanne Harten, and footballers Jill Scott of England and Loren Dykes of Wales.

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Jill Scott: "It feels surreal to see my name, Jill Scott MBE".

In politics there are knighthoods for former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and fellow Tory MP Robert Neil. Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, becomes a dame for charitable and political service.

The honours system

Commonly awarded ranks:

  • Companion of Honour - Limited to 65 people. Recipients wear the initials CH after their name

  • Knight or Dame

  • CBE - Commander of the Order of the British Empire

  • OBE - Officer of the Order of the British Empire

  • MBE - Member of the Order of the British Empire

  • BEM - British Empire Medal

Newton-John's damehood is for services to music, cancer research and charity. The Cambridge-born star, who moved to Australia as a child, achieved global fame in the 1978 film Grease. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she became a campaigner and in 2012 set up a cancer centre near Melbourne.

"I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me," she said.

Image source, Getty Images
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Iain Duncan Smith is knighted and Diana Johnson becomes a dame

The other damehoods include author Rose Tremain; former Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders; social justice campaigner Julia Unwin; FA director of Women's football Susan Campbell, and Floella Benjamin, the TV presenter turned Lib Dem peer, who is recognised for services to charity.

Eoin Morgan said: "Winning the World Cup has been a dream come true and the honours and awards that have come since that day at Lord's really mean a lot to everyone connected with the team."

The knighthoods include veteran cricketer Clive Lloyd; Oscar-winning film directors Sam Mendes and Steve McQueen; classical music presenter Humphrey Burton, and playwright Christopher Hampton.

Jade Jones
Getty Images
New Year Honours 2020

  • 1,097Recipients

  • 72%Given for work in the community

  • 556Women (51%)

  • 9.1% BAME background

  • 941OBEs, MBEs and BEMS

  • 156Dames, Knights, CBEs, Companions of Honour

Source: Cabinet Office

Former Thames Valley Police chief constable Francis Habgood is knighted and Rachel Lloyd, who heads a New York-based organisation supporting victims of sexual exploitation, becomes a dame.

Overall, 1,097 people are on the list issued by the Cabinet Office,, external with 51% being women. The Foreign Office, external has announced 100 honours, and separate lists cover gallantry awards for police, ambulance and fire staff and military personnel., external

Media caption,

New Year Honours 2020: MBE for woman engineer from Rugby

The youngest person on the list is Ibrahim Yousaf, 13, who receives a British Empire Medal (BEM) for charity fundraising in Greater Manchester.

Other sporting honours include OBEs for horse racing trainers Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, and MBEs for ex-Northern Ireland footballer Aaron Hughes, and Rose Reilly, who played for Scotland and Italy in the 1970s.

Paralympic champion runner Michael McKillop, from Co Antrim, who won gold in Beijing, London and Rio is made an MBE.

MBEs also go to golfer Catriona Matthew, captain of Europe's Solheim Cup winning squad; former squash world number one Laura Massaro; ex-England cricketer Alan Knott; and British Gymnastics chief executive Jane Allen, and Olympic heptathlete Kelly Sotherton.

Image source, Getty Images
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Serena Guthrie and Joanne Harten become MBEs

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Catriona Matthew - pictured with the Solheim Cup - has been made an OBE

From business, there is a damehood for Sharon White, chief executive of telecoms watchdog Ofcom. She is to become the first female chair of the John Lewis store group. Donna Langley, who chairs Hollywood film studio Universal, is also made a dame.

Andrew Wylie, co-founder of software company Sage, is knighted for services to business and charity, and former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Ross McEwan becomes a CBE.

There are OBEs for fashion designer David Nieper, and Thomas and Ruth Chapman, who founded clothes retailer Matches. Television presenter Gok Wan is appointed an MBE for services to fashion and social awareness.

Graphic designer Peter Saville, who began his career 40 years ago with the cover of the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures, becomes a CBE.

Architect Sadie Morgan, part of the team behind the Stirling Prize winning Hastings Pier, becomes an OBE.

Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody is to be made an OBE for services to music and charity in Northern Ireland. His song Chasing Cars was named the most-played song of the 21st Century on UK radio.

Image source, Getty Images
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Nadiya Hussain, who becomes an MBE, made a cake for the queen's 90th birthday in 2016

Other CBEs include actress Wendy Craig; Steven Knight, who created TV hit Peaky Blinders, and BBC Radio 1's longest serving DJ Annie Nightingale.

Singer Billy Ocean, and Mike Pender of 1960s band The Searchers become MBEs.

EastEnders star Rudolph Walker becomes a CBE, in recognition of his foundation helping disadvantaged children become actors. Ex-Coronation Street actor Derek Griffiths is made an MBE for services to drama and diversity.

Image source, Empics
Image caption,

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is among the youngest recipients of an honour

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 20, who played at the Duke of Sussex's wedding in 2018 becomes an MBE.

The MBEs for Scotland-based film-maker Gordon Buchanan, who shot Planet Earth II, and naturalist and television presenter Steve Backshall recognise their conservation efforts. Elsewhere, Prof Duncan Wingham, from University College London, is knighted for services to climate science, and Oxford University's Prof Sarah Whatmore, becomes a dame for her environmental policy work.

Wine writer and broadcaster Oz Clarke is made an OBE.

TV presenter June Sarpong, who this year was appointed director of creative diversity at the BBC, becomes an OBE for services to broadcasting, and BBC senior news controller Sarah Ward-Lilley an MBE for services to journalism.

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

Midwife Nicolette Peel become an MBE

More than 20 teachers are on the list. Caroline Allen, ex-head of the Orchard Hill College and Academy Trust schools for students with special needs in the South East, becomes a dame. Kalwant Bhopal, professor of education and social justice at the University of Birmingham becomes an MBE for services to race equality in education.

Twelve nurses and five midwives are on the list including Nicolette Peel, from Derbyshire, who has been made an MBE for supporting pregnant women affected by cancer.

Prof Lesley Regan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and author of a number of books on pregnancy, is made a dame for services to women's healthcare. University of Sussex Prof Alan Lehmann, becomes a CBE after his research into rare genetic conditions, and NHS England head Simon Stevens is knighted.

Calendar girls

Some 72% of recipients are being recognised for work in their community.

Harry Paticas, the creator of a memorial to the 173 civilians who died at Bethnal Green Tube station in World War Two, becomes an MBE.

Image source, PA Media
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Harry Billinge has been raising money for a memorial to his fallen D-Day comrades

And six-months after attending the D-Day landing 75th anniversary commemorations in Normandy, veteran Harry Billinge, from Cornwall, is made an MBE for services to charity after raising more than £10,000 towards a national memorial for his fallen comrades.

Wilf Oldham, 99, from Greater Manchester, a veteran of the Battle of Arnhem, has been made an MBE for services to commemorations and UK-Dutch relations and is the oldest person on the list.

Holocaust survivors John Hajdu and Mindu Hornick become MBEs - among 31 people on the list for Holocaust education work.

Det Sgt Ashley Jones of Avon and Somerset Police, who came up with the concept of "chat benches" where people can have conversations to combat loneliness, becomes an MBE.

An MBE goes to Mete Coban, co-founder of the My Life My Say charity, for promoting youth engagement in democracy.

The same honour goes to a woman behind a nude calendar that raised £6m for charity and inspired a feature film and host of imitations. Angela Knowles, 74, from Linton North Yorkshire and 10 Women's Institute friends first posed for the calendar in 1999.