Yorkshire's stalwarts named in Queen's Birthday Honours

Dawda Jatta is the founder and CEO of BAMEN, a community organisation promoting recycling, energy-saving, local food production and environmental education training programmes to BAME groups in Hull and East Riding of
Yorkshire. Pic Jonathan Gawthorpe. — Dawda Jatta is the founder and CEO of BAMEN, a community organisation promoting recycling, energy-saving, local food production and environmental education training programmes to BAME groups in Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire. Pic Jonathan Gawthorpe.

Life-savers, community stalwarts, business leaders and many more from across Yorkshire has been included in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

The list has been released this evening, prizing some of the region's most hard-working people.

Culture and heritage

Michael D'Arcy Benson, who has worked to keep York Minster in good finances. James Hardisty.

Long-serving Stalwarts of heritage and culture in Yorkshire have been recognised for their inspiring efforts in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Julie Kenny CBE, the self-made Rotherham businesswoman whose relentless five-year campaign saved Wentworth Woodhouse for the nation, is to be made a Dame.

As the chairwoman of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, she is an unpaid volunteer who now receives the second-highest honour in the land for her crucial role in securing the future of the Grade I-listed Georgian stately home in Rotherham.

Her determination enabled the trust to purchase the mansion, its stables, riding school, camelia house and 83 acres in March 2017 for £7million following a campaign backed by SAVE British Heritage.

“I am amazed and humbled to receive this honour,” said the 61-year-old.

“Many times I saw in people’s eyes that they thought it could not be achieved. But my view is that nothing is impossible with time and energy and belief.

“And I passionately believed the house could become a beacon, its beauty drawing people from all of the world. I knew how proud that would make the people of Rotherham feel about their heritage again, and that jobs and skills could be created for young people.

“But the fight tested everything I had learned throughout my business life.

“It took hard work, stamina, focus and negotiation skills and above all the resolve to persevere and never to give up, even when the going got tough - and then extra tough,” added the mother-of-three, who founded a security system manufacturer in Rotherham and was awarded a CBE in 2002 for her services to industry in Yorkshire and the Humber.