King's Honours: Ian Wright, Anna Wintour and Ian McEwan among famous faces to make first birthday list

Footballer Ian Wright, fashion editor Dame Anna Wintour and author Ian McEwan are among the famous faces recognised in King Charles' first Birthday Honours list.

Some of the highest awards went to Vogue editor-in-chief Wintour and Booker Prize-winning novelist McEwan, who were made Companions of Honour. Dozens of Britons - from senior firefighters and police, to a volunteer who set up reading groups for inmates, to a cancer charity founder - have been honoured in the June list.

Sir John Irving Bell - regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford - has also been made a Companion of Honour, for services to medicine, medical research, and public health.

McEwan told the PA news agency: “News of the honour, in a letter from the Cabinet Office, was a complete surprise and, naturally, I was delighted.

“I guess it amounts to a really good review," the author continued. "The writers who precede me in this award have long been companions too – Maugham, Greene, Larkin, Pinter, Margaret Atwood, Antonia Fraser, and my friend Salman Rushdie. Truly, a companionable honour.”

Late author Sir Martin Amis was knighted a day before he died last month aged 73. In the entertainment world, Line Of Duty actress Vicky McClure, television presenter Davina McCall and veteran broadcaster Ken Bruce were made MBEs, while in sport, former England and Arsenal footballer-turned-pundit Wright was made an OBE

Former Rangers footballer and manager John Greig was made a CBE, while former Manchester United defender Jonny Evans and ex-Lionesses striker Eniola Aluko became MBEs.

MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and Labour former minister Sir Ben Bradshaw were knighted, with a number of sitting Labour and Tory MPs recognised with awards. These also included Conservatives John Baron, Bob Blackman, Damian Collins and Heather Wheeler, and Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie - who was given a damehood.

Sir Richard Moore said: “This is a huge honour and a proud day for me.” He led the organisation during Russia’s war with Ukraine, but credited colleagues for their work while speaking about his knighthood.

“But, as with many such honours, it really belongs to the brilliant men and women of SIS and in the Foreign Office that I’ve had the privilege to lead in recent years.”

Moore, a former ambassador to Turkey, became the head of MI6 in 2020, replacing Sir Alex Younger at a time of increased tensions between Russia and the West. In July 2022, he famously said Russian President Vladimir Putin had suffered an “epic fail” in Ukraine.

Sir Ben Bradshaw, who served in both Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments, was only the second openly gay MP when he was elected in 1997.

Sir Ben said he had questioned whether to accept the award in light of the recent controversy surrounding Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list but viewed it “as a thank-you” to all those who supported him over the years.

He had faced homophobic abuse when he was first elected 26 years ago, and issued a stark warning that LGBTQ+ rights were at risk of “going backwards” - namely the “moral panic that’s being stoked against trans people” today.

“The LGBTQ+ community and their allies and the overwhelming majority of the British people who support equality, we must all redouble our efforts to ensure that hard-won rights and freedoms are not reversed.”

The oldest recipient, 106-year-old Joan Willett, was given a British Empire Medal for her charitable fundraising for the British Heart Foundation, while the youngest, Junior Jay Frood, 18, received the same honour for services to vulnerable children.

Mr Frood told PA: “It feels really amazing and good because it shows no matter how young you are you can receive this award... You can start from any age helping other people and helping the community.”

More than half of the recipients were people who showed “outstanding work” in their communities, either in a voluntary or paid capacity, which was a core focus behind this year’s list, according to those behind the selection process.

Exactly 50% of the recipients are women – marking the third year in a row when females have made up at least half of the Birthday Honours list – while 11% of awards go to people from an ethnic minority background.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: “This year’s honours list is a testament to ordinary people who have demonstrated extraordinary community spirit, and I pay tribute to all those who have been recognised today.

“Our honours system has long been a way of recognising people who make an incredible contribution to life in Britain and beyond.”

Some would-be recipients even declined their awards, including a campaigner for victims of historical abuse who witnessed two teenagers being injured on Bloody Sunday - who would have been made an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Jon McCourt is the chairman and co-founder of Survivors North West, a campaign group that advocated for a formal inquiry into historical abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland. The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) went on to reveal sexual, physical and emotional abuse at state, church and charity-run homes from 1922 to 1995.

Mr McCourt said his experience working with victims of state abuse, as well as his personal experience, informed his decision to decline the MBE title. He was with two teenagers who were injured on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry - when 13 civil rights protesters were shot dead by British soldiers on 30 January, 1972.

“I remember not too long ago, one of the soldiers actually involved in Bloody Sunday got an MBE," he said. “For me, there’s absolutely no equivocation at all. There’s nothing at all that would make me want to accept that."