Queen Mary, University of London, has awarded Honorary Fellowships during its 2012 summer graduation ceremonies to seven distinguished figures in their fields, including former judge Lord Millett, novelist Andrea Levy and Matt Hyde, Chief Executive of the National Union of Students (NUS).
Honorary Fellowships are awarded by Queen Mary to those who have rendered significant services to the College or the wider community.
Lord Peter Millett was presented with his Honorary Fellowship on Friday 13 July by Sir Roy Goode, founder of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary. As a QC, Lord Millett appeared in many leading cases in the House of Lords. He was appointed a Judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court in 1986, a member of the Court of Appeal in 1994 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1988.
Lord Millett retired from his full time judicial duties in the House of Lords in January 2004, but continues to sit in the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong. Sitting as an arbitrator, he provides expert legal advice on English law to foreign courts.
Also on Friday 13 July, Queen Mary’s Principal, Professor Simon Gaskell, presented Mr Stephen O’Brien CBE with his Honorary Fellowship. Mr O’Brien is Chairman of Barts Health NHS Trust and, amongst other national and international bodies, Chairman of International Health Partners and President of Proshanti – a new charity promoting the construction of a health centre in Bangladesh.
Mr O’Brien has lived in east London for many years and is passionate about developing the community through the provision of good healthcare, housing, education and employment. He has played a key role in promoting the academic, community and public health agenda of the School of Medicine and Dentistry at QM.
Ms Andrea Levy is the author of five novels, including Small island (2004), which won both the Orange Prize for Fiction, the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in 2005. It was adapted for television and broadcast in 2009. Her novel The Long Song (2010) won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.
Ms Levy was presented with her Fellowship by Bill Schwartz of QM’s School of English and Drama on Monday 16 July. Her work is widely read in the School and she has met students to read and discuss her work and the role of migrant literature in contemporary fiction.
Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy OBE was presented with his Fellowship on 17 July by Professor Philip Ogden, Senior Advisor to Queen Mary’s Principal. In 1980 Rabbi Levy became The Spiritual Head of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation – England’s oldest Jewish community. He has since completed 50 years of service with the Congregation.
Rabbi Levy has provided much assistance in the recent restoration of the Congregation’s oldest burial site, which is located on and adjacent to Queen Mary’s Mile End campus. He is also the Founder and Honorary Principal of the Naima Jewish Preparatory School and in 2004 became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his interfaith work.
Professor Jane Wills of the School of Geography presented Mr Neil Jameson with his Fellowship on the 18 July. Mr Jameson has spent 20 years as Executive Director of Citizens UK. He has spent the last 15 years as Lead Organiser of London Citizens, building diverse alliances of civil society organisations to work together for the common good. The School of Geography is part of that alliance and works in partnership with London Citizens on teaching and research projects.
Mr Jameson is honoured for his impact on students and staff at Queen Mary and for the role he has played in developing a vibrant civil society in east London.
Mr Matt Hyde has spent most of his working life in the student movement and voluntary sector. He is a former President of the Queen Mary Students’ Union, former President of the University of London Union and current Chief Executive of the NUS. He is the creator of the College’s popular ‘Hail Mary’ sports social night and, during his leadership of the UoL Union, successfully campaigned for students to receive a third off travel across tube and bus travel – a scheme still in place today.
Mr Hyde was presented with his Fellowship on 18 July by Dominic Bell, current Vice-President for Student Activities at the College’s Students’ Union.
On Thursday 19 July, Major General Adrian Lyons CBE was presented with his Fellowship by Professor Morag Shiach, Vice-Principal and Executive Dean (Humanities and Social Sciences). Major Lyons had a thirty-four year career in the Army as a logistics officer, largely employed from the 1980s in Ministry of Defence posts focussing on logistics strategy. After retiring from the Army in 2000 he became Director General of the Railway Forum, a think-tank and lobby group for the railway industry.
Queen Mary has strong historical links with the Drapers’ Company that date from the 1880s when the Company supported the establishment of the People’s Palace and its associated Schools, on what is now the College’s Mile End Campus. The Company continue to provide financial support to Queen Mary students. From 2010-11 Adrian Lyons was Master of the Draper’s Company, supporting the work of the College. He is also Chair of the Governing Body of Drapers’ Academy, a school sponsored jointly by Queen Mary and Drapers’, which opened successfully in 2010.
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