New Years Honours for south Bucks residents

Jan 6 2009 By Jack Abell, Polly Manser, and Martyn Pritchard

We take a look at the work of some of the people in our area who have been recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours List including Beaconsfield-based entrepreneur Peter Jones.

Peter Jones, star of television show Dragons' Den, has been made a CBE for services to business, entrepreneurship and young people.

Mr Jones, 42, lives in Furzefield Road, Beaconsfield, with wife Tara and children Annabelle, William, Natalia, Isabella and Tallulah, and dog Holly.

He set up his first company - a successful tennis academy - at the age of 16, and two years later he started his first major business, providing computers and services to corporate clients.

The business collapsed when Mr Jones was in his 20s, but he bounced back by joining a large corporation, and by the age of 28 he became the youngest ever head of the personal computer business at Siemens Nixdorf.

In 1998 he started his telecoms business, Phones International Group, taking turnover to more than £120 million a decade later.

He became a household name after appearing on the BBC Two programme Dragons' Den in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel in the hope that they will invest.

In March he announced the launch of a new National Enterprise Academy, backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, aimed at helping teenagers unlock their entrepreneurial talent. #

Bernard Lewis, founder and chairman of the River Island chain of clothing shops, has been awarded a OBE for services to charity.

Mr Lewis' family trust has donated millions to charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Phobics Society which helps people with anxiety disorders, and Dignity in Dying, which is trying to persuade the government to let people take control of the way in which they die. He is also a trustee of New Life, a charity for children born with a birth defect.

Mr Lewis, 82, made the donations via the Bernard Lewis Family Trust which was set up two decades ago.

A private man who is not well known in Beaconsfield, he said he had taken the news "calmly" when he received his letter several weeks ago.

He said: "It's not a dukedom, but it's very nice to be made an OBE."

A father of five and grandfather of eight, he lives with his wife and one of his children in Beaconsfield.

A professor from Gerrards Cross has been awarded an OBE for public service.

Martin Cave, who is a professor at Warwick Business School, is an economist specialising in the regulation of sectors such as airports, broadcasting, housing and water.

Professor Cave has been involved in providing advice on these matters to the UK and other governments and to the European Commission.

He produced a review of the regulation of social housing for the Department of Communities and Local Government, which served as the basis for the creation of the new Tenant Services Agency by the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008.

At the moment, he is conducting a review of competition and innovation in the water industry and is also chairing an expert panel advising the Secretary of State for Transport on the future of airport regulation.

Shirley Cramer from Gerrards Cross was "incredibly surprised" to find that she was to made a CBE.

Mrs Cramer, of South Park Crescent, is being awarded the honour for services to education.

Her paid job is as chief executive of the Dyslexia Association, which runs 160 teaching locations across the UK, but she believes the CBE is a result of her unpaid work for six years as a non executive director of the National Learning and Skills Council, a government body which plans and funds further education and work based training. Squeezing the work into evenings, weekends, and during her working day, she chaired the equality and diversity committee and the working together advisory group from 2002 until she left the post last month.

Mrs Cramer said: "I had to read the letter three times, because you can't really believe it. You do feel incredibly surprised, you don think am I deserving."

She will take her 86 year old father, from Cumbria, with her to Buckingham Palace "because it will mean a lot to him," she said.

Mrs Cramer is married to Karl and has two daughters, Grace, 19, a student at Durham University, and Olivia, 17, a pupil at Dr Challoner's High School.

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