Honours

The Queen's Birthday Honours List is out. Reading through it, I find:

Knights Bachelor
Knighthoods

Christopher LEE, CBE
Actor. For services to Drama and to Charity.
(London, SW1X)

Order of the British Empire
Officers of the Order of the British Empire

The Honourable Peter Malcolm De Brissac DICKINSON
Author and Poet. For services to Literature.
(Alresford, Hampshire)

Members of the Order of the British Empire

Nicola Ann, Mrs COX
Founder and Editor, First News. For services to Children.
(Leatherhead, Surrey)

Peter Dickinson was the author of numerous books, both for adults and for children, including Tulku and City of Gold, 1979 and 1980 winners, respectively, of the Carnegie Medal. First News is a weekly newspaper for children aged 8-14, established in 2006.

Sir Christopher Lee is probably best known for his roles in horror movies such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), and as Saruman in the recent Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). He wasn't always an actor, though. After the Soviet Union (which was on Hitler's side at the beginning of World War II) invaded Finland, he volunteered to fight with the Finnish forces, though he and other British volunteers were in Finland for only a brief period. After returning to England, he signed up with the RAF, serving as an intelligence officer with the LRDG in the Western Desert, and later with 260 Squadron in Sicily and Italy. He demobbed after the end of the war with the rank of Flight Lieutenant (equivalent to a USAF captain). He was awarded the CBE in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

(Left: Insignia of a knight bachelor. Right: Emblem of a member of the Order of the British Empire.)

Oh - and there's also a CBE for Vidal Sassoon, for services to the British hairdressing industry....

H/T to LawDog for the background info on Sir Christopher Lee.