Sussex heroes honoured

In what will be seen as the clearest endorsement yet of the Armed Forces' efforts to promote equality, Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones, 37, of Sussex Square, Brighton, becomes an MBE.

Lt Cdr Jones said: "I have spent a lot of my time trying to change attitudes after I came out and the Forces have moved light years away from where they were five years ago on gay rights.

"Nothing gives me more pleasure today than seeing our gay guys and girls joining up with the Armed Forces and being comfortable with themselves."

With a Royal Navy career spanning 16 years, Lt Cdr Jones is to receive the military version of the MBE for his successful lobbying of the Ministry of Defence on gay rights.

He is joined in the honours list by a host of names from Sussex, including Clare Connor, England's triumphant women's cricket team captain, and The Beverley Sisters, the first British girl group to break into the American Top Ten.

Lt Cdr Jones intends to spend the day celebrating with his partner of 11 years, Adam, a private hospital manager.

He announced his sexuality to the crew of HMS Invincible, the ship he was serving on, just hours after a parliamentary ruling in January 2000 which allowed gay and lesbian recruits to join the Armed Forces legally. He said: "It was incredibly difficult to begin with but I felt it was something I absolutely had to do to make a stand for other gay people.

"There has been an enormous change in the attitude of the Armed Forces in the last five years and I would like to think I have helped play my part with that.

"Being in the closet isn't easy but jumping out isn't easy either. Doing that on a Navy ship where you really don't have much privacy is difficult.

"Thankfully most of my crewmates at the time were fantastic and it was soon as if nothing had happened.

"Adam regularly comes on board ships with the wives and girlfriends for social dos and balls that we have and he has an absolute hoot. He is very well received."

Lt Cdr Jones has acted as a Ministry of Defence adviser on gay and lesbian rights since 2001 and has worked with the media to increase awareness of the issue.

He also works closely within the Royal Navy to help individual gay recruits and has helped set up the Navy's membership of Stonewall's Diversity Champions Scheme.

Lt Cdr Jones is a warfare commander based at Northwood HQ, the nerve centre of the Royal Navy's logistical operations.

He said: "I'm a warfare officer first and foremost and that literally means moving ships around the globe to points of conflict and on peace-keeping missions.

"I have been in some pretty dangerous and exciting places in my career.

"I was on board HMS Invincible in America when it was scrambled to the second Gulf War.

"I was also in Northern Ireland 16 months before the ceasefire, commanding two groups of Royal Marines. That again was pretty scary.

"Gay and lesbian recruits are really finding their feet now in the Armed Forces and long may that continue."

Lt Cdr Jones said he planned to celebrate with a few glasses of champagne with the Kemp Town Society of which he is a member.

His mother is also travelling from Yorkshire to congratulate him.

Clare Connor, the 29-year-old English teacher from Hove who captained the team to an Ashes victory over Australia in the summer also becomes an MBE.

She said: "It just caps the most wonderful year for me.

"I've known about it for six or seven weeks and I've only been able to tell my parents but I'm now going up to Oxford to spend the New Year and celebrate by telling all my friends. It really is an award I'm accepting on behalf of the whole team."

The Beverley Sisters, who have family in Patcham, also become MBEs. Joy, 76, and twins Babs and Teddie, 73, were hugely popular in the Fifties and Sixties.

They have been given their awards for services to music after successful careers on stage and television and in the pop world.

Farmer Christopher Passmore, 74, from Applesham Farm, near Steyning, is awarded an OBE.

He has been recognised for work preserving wildlife on his farm and for 25 years of work with Sussex Wildlife Advisory Group.

He said: "Obviously it is a great honour. I've worked on my farm all of my life and it has been work I have enjoyed immensely."

Mr Passmore was born at Applesham Farm and went to Steyning Grammar School.

Charity fund-raiser Michael Burnage, 38, from Malines Avenue, Peacehaven, receives an OBE for the thousands of pounds he has helped raise for the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, Brighton.

For the past six years, Mr Burnage has helped put on displays of Christmas lights in Malines Avenue and transformed the road into a winter wonderland.

He said: "I'm very pleased and hopefully it is recognition for all the work I and others who've helped me have done for the hospital.

"I've been involved in charity work for quite some time but this caps the work nicely."

This year his work helped raise £5,406 and in all six years has raised £37,000 for the hospital.

Brian Peters, 65, from Birdham, near Chichester, is chairman of Peters Plc, a boat retail firm with branches in Chichester and across Britain and Europe.

He has been awarded an OBE for his work as a magistrate and his wide ranging charitable interests in Chichester, including work for the Chichester Harbour Conservancy and Chichester Canal Trust.

Mr Peters also served 26 years as a Sussex Police Assistant Chief Constable.

His firm employs thousands and has a turnover of about £100 million a year.

He said: "I've spent a lifetime working with groups in this area, both for business and pleasure and I'm very honoured to get this award."

Tracey Whitewood-Neal, from Bexhill, is also given an OBE. She looks after son Jordan who suffers from the rare Proteus syndrome which was thought to have affected John Merrick, alias the Elephant Man.

The disease triggers an accelerated growth rate in some parts of the body.

Mrs Whitewood-Neal, an executive officer for the Child Support Agency, is being given the award for services to children.

Dr Peter Fenwick, the Department of Trade and Industry's chief engineering inspector, is awarded an OBE. He lives in Seaford.

Furners Green resident Marc Koska, director of healthcare firm Star Syringe, and Brighton's Professor Norbert Lynton, chairman of the Charleston Trust, have both been given OBEs, as have Katerina Phillips, Christian Aid's director of external relations, of Horsham, Professor Andrew Self, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University, from Brighton, Jill Loader, from Bexhill, Helen Taylor-Thompson from Nutley, Frederick Milbourn, from Arundel, Trevor Vaughan, from Crawley, and Kenneth Wards, from Shoreham.