Lieutenancy & University of Northampton


National honours – recognising the extraordinary


While for many, modesty and shyness can make gratitude and recognition uncomfortable, it is centrally human to find pleas- ure in thanking and being thanked for something done worthy of appreciation. Whether it is a friend, family or a stranger who helped us along the way and whether small or life-changing, a response is as important and affirming to the helped as it is to the helper. We all know what it feels like when something positive we do is


ignored. Te motivation to help in future can be dimmed. A ‘thank you’ though, builds us up, whether giver or receiver. It doesn’t cost us either. In that sense, it is priceless. What is true at a personal level, is just as true at a societal level.


If a society fails to mark and express its gratitude for individual or collective contributions to the life of its communities, then it is di- minished. Tis is why at a national level the UK’s system for awarding honours has a key role to play in ensuring that people who make our lives better are suitably thanked. It is a bi-annual moment when the country, by act of the Sovereign, can publicly declare its appreciation of the beyond-ordinary contribution of individuals to the lives of us all.


Te National Honours System is your honours system. Te vast


majority of honours are based on nominations by members of the public. Yes, nominations go through a careful process of scrutiny by specialist non-political committees and a validation process, and not


Image left Elizabeth Ann Packer receiving the BEM medal from the former Lord- Lieutenant David Laing for services to the community.


Dominic


Hopkins, DL Solicitor with


Hewitsons LLP and the Under Sheriff of Northamptonshire, is also a Deputy Lieutenant for the County and assists HM Lord-Lieutenant, Mr James Saunders Watson, as a member of the County’s Honours Committee


all nominations are accepted. A national honour should have a rarity value and not be handed out on just a ‘say so’. Te process can also take a con- siderable while, but when an honour is awarded, it makes a difference; a difference not just to the individual, but to the community that has benefited. Tere is thus great worth in receiving an honour, in one of the following four categories:


CBE Commander of the Order of the British Empire: for achievement or service in a leading role regionally or nationally


OBE


Officer of the Order of the British Empire: for a con- tribution felt by a significant body of people across a county or region


MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire: for out- standing achievement or service by a local role model


BEM


British Empire Medal: for sustained and creditable charitable or voluntary activity in a locality


Te starting point for any nomination is the form and guidance to be found at the following link to the Cabinet Office webpage for UK National Honours. –


www.gov.uk/government/publications/nominate-someone-for-a-uk- national-honour


Although recent months have been immensely difficult for so many, with heartbreaking suffering and in some areas overwhelming need, we have also seen extraordinary acts of selflessness and sacrifice, kindness and generosity by individuals and groups; conduct that has been truly heart- warming and elevating. If you feel that someone you know has gone beyond the ordinary and been extraordinary, perhaps now is the time to consider making a nomination for an individual National Honour. So, why not make a difference to someone who has made a difference?


38 ALL THINGS BUSINESS


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