Pauline Griffiths: British Empire Medal

TWO Pembrokeshire residents are amongst several west Wales residents to have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours list. Richard Graham Tovey Honorary Life Member, The Independent Association of Prep Schools, Leamington Spa who lives Haverfordwest received an MBE for services to education. Mr Tovey is a retired head teacher who moved to Pembrokeshire two of years ago.

After his teacher training in Oxfordshire, Mr Tovey took his first post at Manorbrook in Thornbury, where he worked for two years. He then taught near Shrewsbury before becoming head teacher at Tockington Manor School in 1975 where he worked until 2013. Pauline Griffiths, the curator at Narberth Museum received a British Empire Medal for services to heritage and the community in Pembrokeshire.

She was the driving force behind a campaign to find a new home for Narberth museum, which finally reopened at The Bonded Stores nine years after closing. With a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £586,500, Pauline along with other volunteers made the project possible. At the time of the museum’s reopening she paid tribute to the work of local people and an active “friends” group in helping to keep the campaign going. She said people had thought it would take three years to open a new museum, but it eventually took nine due to the time to raise and source funding.

“It has been an endurance test and testament to the volunteers,” she told The Herald. In Carmarthenshire, Mrs Rosalie Mary James has received an MBE or services to Agriculture in Wales. She is from Llandeilo. In local healthcare, Ms Wendy Angharad Churchouse from Carmarthenshire who is an arrhythmia nurse at Morriston Hospital has received a British Empire Medal for services to cardiac patients in south west Wales.

Also in Carmarthenshire, Mrs Erika Walker has received the MBW for voluntary services to the community and Social Enterprises in her home town of Ammanford. William Bruce McLernon from Swansea has received the OBE for services to Social Care and Local Government particularly in Carmarthenshire.

In Ceredigion, Mrs Maureen Spowart Davies who is the Secretary of Trustees for the HUTS Workshop bas also received an MBE for voluntary service to people with Mental Health Challenges. She is from Newcastle Emlyn. Also in Ceredigion Miss Valerie Joy Cook has received the British Empire Medal for voluntary service to her local community in Borth.

LOCAL STAR HONOURED

 One of Carmarthenshire’s most famous residents says she is overwhelmed with news of her award. Veteran actress Sian Phillips has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours. Phillips, who stole the show in The Archers’ version of Calendar Girls this Christmas, has been made a dame, Buckingham Palace has confirmed. The 82-year-old, who says she has no plans for retirement, is one of Wales’ most successful stage and screen stars and swaps her CBE for a damehood for services to drama.

Sian Phillips, who is from Gwaun- Cae-Gurwen, near Ammanford, told reporters: “It’s a very nice thing to happen. When I first heard about it I was a bit overwhelmed – it was totally unexpected. “It’s something I’ve never thought about during my life. I got my first pay check in Wales at the age of 11 and a damehood would have been so remote to me as an ambition at that time and that’s the way it’s stayed. “I just wanted to become an actress and then when I became one I just wanted to get better and better (at the job). I’m not a celebrity – I don’t belong to that culture at all.”