WATCH: Queen honours four islanders

Saturday 09 June 2018

Four Jersey residents have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Ian Richardson, Andre Bonjour, Susie Robins and Vicki Atherton have all been appointed Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – MBEs.

Mr Richardson, who for more than 25 years was Hospice’s treasurer, says he was ‘confused’ when he received the news. His wife passed the phone to him thinking it was one of their tenants on the line. Although the name of the tenant sounds similar it was the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Stephen Dalton. Ian says he then thought it might be a ‘wind-up’ but the voice on the other end of the line was ‘far too cultured’ to be any of his friends playing a practical joke on him. Ian says when he started helping hospice it operated out of a bungalow and he thinks there were five patients and that it cost between £300,000-£400,000 a year to run. When he ‘retired’ two years ago that had risen to £5m. That meant much more work for him, but he says ‘the years have just flown by’.

Andre Bonjour has been involved with the Sea Cadets for almost half a century – he started as a cadet and moved steadily up the ranks, he’s now a Lieutenant. He says the unit taught him a lot of skills that later helped him in his professional career as a policeman, and that today’s cadets can also benefit from the lessons and experiences they can gain with the unit.  When he joined the cadets had just moved into a new state-of-the-art headquarters at Fort Regent. That building, he says, is now well past its sell by date. Although the States have been promising for almost two decades to re-house the unit, nothing has happened. Lieutenant Bonjour says it’s holding the unit back and something needs to be done urgently. Despite the problems, the unit was recently awarded the accolade of best in the British Isles.

Still with helping the island’s youngsters, and Flight Lieutenant Vicki Atherton has recognised for her services to the Air Cadet movement, her work as a reservist and the work that she’s carried out in Sierra Leone. Ms Atherton joined the 7 (OS) Jersey Air Training Corps in 1984 at the age of 15 and after leaving cadets became an adult instructor, and, like Andre Bonjour, steadily worked her way up the ranks. In 2008 she was appointed as the OC Unit as a Flight Lieutenant. In 2010 she joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a reservists in the rank of private and after her basic training joined the Medical Operation Support Group. Shortly after she was promoted to Lance Corporal. She deployed on OP GRIT-ROCK in Feb 2015 (a 3 month deployment) to Sierra Leone and used her skills as a Bio Medical Scientist (her Jersey employment at the General Hospital) to help combat the Ebola outbreak.

Pictured: Flight Lieutenant Vicki Atherton recognised for her services to the Air Cadet movement, her work as a reservist and the work that she’s carried out in Sierra Leone.

Susie Robins has been helping Citizens’ Advice on and off for more than 25 years. Her mother was a great supporter of the charity and Mrs Robins continued the family involvement. She started as a volunteer and has held a host of appointments. When she joined, the Jersey branch operated out of a small office in the Town Hall where two staff members shared one desk! They now have much improved facilities nearby at St Paul’s Gate. One of the biggest challenges when she helped set up the charity locally was making sure the advice they gave islanders was correct! So much of the material given to them by branches in the UK didn’t apply to Jersey and they had to go about sourcing and compiling specific information that was relevant to islanders. She says the award isn’t so much for the work she’s put in, but a recognition of the work the charity does locally.