New Year's Honours: Former head and maritime officer among award winners

The Queen's New Years Honours 2021 list has been released recognising the achievements and service of people from all walks of life.

Lisa Knight was made MBE for services to the nursing during the COVID-19 response.

Appointed as chief nurse and director of patient care at Northwick Park hospital in May 2019 she covers all hospitals within at the London North West Hospital Trust.

"I’m deeply grateful to have been nominated for this honour. It’s a lovely surprise, and one that I want to share with my nurses who continue to be so fantastic during the pandemic," Lisa said.

"Having trained at London North West myself early in my career, it’s meant a lot for me to be working with the Trust during this challenging time.

"It’s been an extraordinarily tough year and I couldn’t ask for more from my colleagues who carry on working in often difficult circumstances.

"There is a great sense of unity here and I’m proud to be part of this team.

"Nurses are the backbone of the NHS and this award is recognition of all the hard work and sacrifice they have made in the past year."

Sanjay Kara, a trustee at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, in Brentfield Road, said he was "very shocked" to receive his British Empire Medal (BEM) honour.

"The congratulations is not just to myself, it's to the hundreds of volunteers up and down the country who do so much community work," said the married father-of-two. "This is more for them than for me."

Born and raised on the St Raphael's Estate in Neasden, Sanjay has volunteered at the temple for most of his life while he balances a paid technology job "to pay the bills".

He has been the co-ordinator of the temple's youth activities across the UK for the past 16 years and in 2012 was made a trustee.

Sanjay Kara, trustee of Neasden Temple, has been awarded a BEM (Image: Sanjay Kara)

"It's an honour to receive this and for the organisation and volunteers to be recognised in this way," he added.

"I hope it will inspire other youngsters to give back to their communities, give their experience and know how to improve the life and wellbeing of others."

Maritime officer at the Department for Transport (DfT), Sandra St Louis-Kandapah has been awarded a BEM for services to Diversity, to Inclusion and to Charity.

The 51-year-old mum and grandmother said it was "a lot of a shock". "I'm still overwhelmed. I didn't expect anything like that. We do things for other people, for others to learn from or do themselves, we don't do things to get anything back."

A prolific fundraiser, her attention was turned in 2012 after her daughter suffered kidney failure.

Sandra donated one her kidney's but her daughter's body rejected it and the 21-year-old remains on the transplant list.

"My daughter inspires me. I read up on everything to look after her and understand everything that was needed," Sandra added

A former marathon runner she held bingo nights and cake sales to raise funds and awareness of the condition.

In 2019 through her work at the DfT she was involved in bringing Black History to colleagues and met the Duke of Kent.

She was instrumental in holding a visit and exhibition in the Port of Tilbury and Tilbury Docks where hundreds of families and individuals arrived on the MV Empire Windrush in 1948.

Sandra St Louis-Kandapah was awarded BEM for services to Diversity, Inclusion and Charity (Image: Sandra St Louis-Kandapah)

Sandra also contributes her time and energy to All Soul's church in Harlesden and having qualified as a beauty therapist, looks after the feet of elderly people and homeless people.

Martine Clark, former executive headteacher of Byron Court Primary School in Spencer Road, Wembley, has been made MBE for services to education.

Now retired, the 63-year-old continues to devote two days a week to the school.

During her tenure she saw significant transformation within the highly diverse school, focusing first on the inconsistent quality of teaching and learning identified by Ofsted, then on management and leadership.

This led to the schools ‘Outstanding’ rating by Ofsted in 2012 and her efforts have helped to close the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils within the school.

Her leadership also led to Byron Court School being awarded Mayor of London's Schools for Success on three occasions.

She was awarded National Leader of Education status in 2014 and has worked alongside other school leaders to drive forward improvements and build capacity to ensure sustainability.

She is the vice chair and Board Director of the Brent Schools Partnership (BSP), a member of the Brent School Effectiveness Board and works with colleagues in Challenge Partners, where she is a coach in both the Mayors Getting Ahead London and Women Leading in Education schemes.

Byron Court was also in the top 10 per cent highest performing schools nationally in 2017 and 2018.

Sasi Srinivasan, an early years manager for Brent Council, has been made MBE for services to education.

Sasikala Srinivasan, an early years manager in Brent, has been made MBE for services to education (Image: Brent Council)

Among high profile winners reported by the Press Association is seven-time Formula One world title winner Lewis Hamilton who has been given a knighthood following pressure on the Prime Minister to approve the accolade.

Despite being one of the UK's most successful sportsmen, Hamilton had previously been repeatedly overlooked, reportedly due to his tax affairs.

The honour rounds off a bumper year for Hamilton which saw him equal Michael Schumacher's record with a seventh Formula One title and being voted Sports Personality of the Year for a second time.

Hamilton's knighthood - awarded in the overseas list - may raise a few eyebrows, both because of his decision to relocate to Monaco in 2010 and also because he credited his success in 2020 to a new determination inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

In November, Motorsport UK launched a campaign with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Formula One to ensure he was handed a knighthood, with chairman David Richards saying the driver's tax status had been "totally misunderstood" and that he was among the top 5,000 highest taxpayers in the UK.

The 35-year-old took the knee on the grid and wore anti-racism slogans during the season.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Boxing Day, he said: "It was a different drive than what I've had in me in the past, to get to the end of those races first so that I could utilise that platform (for Black Lives Matter) and shine the light as bright as possible."