Marine Society and Sea Cadets were well represented in the New Year’s Honours List.
MSSC Trustee John May DL (pictured) becomes an OBE for services to young people, while former trustee and current MSSC Vice-President Patrick Stewart MBE receives a CVO for his work as Lord Lieutenant of Argyll and Bute.
The recognition of Sea Cadet volunteers across the country remains one of the highlights of the Honours List.
While three cadets have become recipients of British Empire Medals (BEM), Janice Spicer was made an MBE for her fund-raising efforts to many charities in her native Hull, including Sea Cadets.
Mrs Spicer, 65 and from Hull, joined as a teenager when girls were first admitted in the late 1960s.
After coming back the following week, Janice remained for a near-continuous 50 years period. “My dad wasn’t sure. He huffed that it would be another “week-long wonder” but I knew different,” she said.
21 members of Janice’s family are now Sea Cadets and despite severe illness in her family, she remains as committed to the Sea Cadet cause as ever.
“I had good role models in a nan who brought up kids on their own and my mum’s sister who would take everyone from their street on train for a day’s holiday. If I’m as good an Aunty as our Aunty Madge. I’m doing all right. Sea Cadets in a way are my family and this is for them as much as anyone else.”
Emma Walton BEM from Grimsby has been honoured for community and voluntary service in helping her local Sea Cadets,
Since getting involved within Sea Cadets in 2015, Emma has helped recruit a new set of trustees, refurbish and sign a 99 year lease on their building near the Royal Dock, launch a major recruitment drive for both cadets and volunteers, develop partnerships with local businesses and charities as well as raise over £70,000 within four years to secure the future of Grimsby and Cleethorpes Sea Cadets.
All of this, in spite of being a mother of three which was added to by the arrival of Emma and her husband’s fourth child three years ago. She is also chair of Lincolnshire District Sea Cadets and helps to train new chairs across the East of England.
“I do it because I enjoy it. I’ve made so many friends and when my eldest daughter joined, I started helping out tidying up the unit. “I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for, when I became Chair.”
Lieutenant Commander George Wilson, London Region HQSO as well as Chief Petty Officer Stefen Wells from Shirley also received BEMs for sterling work in their communities.
