New Year's Honours: Derbyshire people's contributions to communities and charities are recognised with MBE awards and a British Empire Medal

Brell Ewart founded the civil engineering business Whitehouse Construction as a 28-year-old in 1977, with £200 to his name, and has grown it into a company with a £16million turnover per annum and 120 employees. Brell achieved a Kings Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2024 for a flood door design some 15 years in the making.

A lifelong railway enthusiast, his contribution to heritage has included restoring to working order two ex LMS pacific locomotives (Princess Royal Class 6203 Princess Margaret Rose and Princess Coronation class 6233 Duchess of Sutherland). Brell founded the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust (PRCLT), donating his ownership of locomotives into the charitable trust.

Brell – who is Deputy Lieutenant for Derbyshire – has been president of the Ashbourne Royal British Legion for eight years, leading Remembrance parades and ensuring that the town’s memorials have been restored and maintained.

His selfless voluntary service to Ashbourne’s Royal Shrovetide Football Committee has ensured the royal game continues for two days in the middle of an ever-densely populated town. In 2012, as chairman of the Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Committee, Brell organised and coordinated a Shrovetide ball procession of 100 balls (from all corners of the UK) to commemorate the Olympic torch’s visit to the town. In 2016, in anticipation of a 100-year commemorative celebration of Shrovetide and as part of a fact-finding trip, Brell tracked down the original Shrovetide ball of 1916. In doing so, he was able to take the ball to Sus St Leger in France, accompanied by a group of soldiers linked to the Sherwood Foresters Regiment, where the ball was played during the First World War.

On being awarded the MBE, Brell, 75, said: “I am honoured, thrilled and humbled to receive this award, it coming as a complete surprise. I look forward to continuing to work with the organisations I support within the county, helping and supporting them to achieve ever higher aspirations and goals.”

Brell, who lives in Bradley, is married to Anne, has three daughters and five grandchildren. He is now retired and Whitehouse Construction, which is based in Ashbourne, is under the stewardship of his middle daughter Josephine Ewart-Sear.

Born into a working-class family, Brell was educated at Chesterfield School (1960-67) before starting a career as a trainee civil engineer with Henry Boot Civil Engineering Ltd in Sheffield.

*Lisa Haythorne, 51, of Chesterfield has also been awarded an MBE for services to vulnerable people and the homeless. She helps people to find specialist legal advice and access justice through her work at Derbyshire Law Centre, Sheffield and District Law Society and the Elm Foundation.

She posted: “Very excited to have been awarded an MBE in the King’s New Years honours. What is amazing, is it is for doing work in a job that I love. It’s nice as a legal aid solicitor to have some recognition for the work that I and so many others do for clients who REALLY need us.”

*Joe Heeney, whose home is in the Peak District, has been made an MBE for his services to drug and alcohol rehabilitation. He founded the adult drug and rehabilitation charity Resolve in Hertfordshire 16 years ago after experiencing his own issues. Joe worked for 14 years in the fire service. He retired from the charity in 2023.

*Sara Kenyon’s lengthy service to midwifery has been recognised with an MBE. The 66-year-old, who lives in Long Eaton, is the only midwife elected as a Fellow of both the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

*Robert Graham, who lives in the Hope Valley, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for his services to charity and the community.