Gareth Southgate, Stephen Fry and Olympians on list

Former England football manager Gareth Southgate and actor Stephen Fry have both been knighted in a New Year Honours list that also recognises the stars of the Olympic Games.

800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, who receives an MBE, is one of several medallists to be honoured following the summer games in Paris.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street are also awarded knighthoods, while Labour MP Emily Thornberry is made a dame.

Other notable names on the 2025 list include musician Myleene Klass, gardener Alan Titchmarsh, and actresses Carey Mulligan and Sarah Lancashire.

And four former sub-postmasters – Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton, Christopher Head and Seema Misra – are appointed OBEs for services to justice after taking the Post Office to court over the Horizon IT scandal.

Southgate, now Sir Gareth, is recognised for guiding the England football team to back-to-back Euros finals, while Fry, who becomes Sir Stephen, is cited for his work on mental health awareness and the environment.

Sir Stephen said he was “startled and enchanted” after receiving the letter informing him of his knighthood.

“I think the most emotional thing is when I think of my childhood, and my dreadful unhappiness and misery and stupidity, and everything that led to so many failures as a child,” he said.

“And for my parents, really, what a disaster. I mean every time the phone rang, they thought, ‘Oh God, what has Stephen done now’. It was a sort of joke in the family.”

Before going to the University of Cambridge and starting his career in the arts, Sir Stephen was sent to prison for stealing credit cards and was expelled from several schools.

Lancashire, known for roles including a no-nonsense police sergeant in BBC series Happy Valley, said it was an “unexpected delight” to be appointed a CBE for services to drama.

Mulligan and Titchmarsh were also appointed CBEs for services to drama and horticulture respectively.

The gardener said it had been a “teary moment” telling his wife Alison and their daughters about the honour, but that he was “thrilled to bits” to be recognised.

Klass, who is an ambassador for the pregnancy and baby loss charity Tommy’s, said she was “over the moon” to be become a MBE for her work on women’s health and miscarriage awareness.

“When I think back to how all of this started, it all came from a very dark place,” she said.

“Anyone that’s suffered the pain of baby loss or miscarriage, you just go into survival mode, and then to have recurring miscarriages again – the only way you can see forward is just one breath at a time, one day at a time.”

More than 1,200 people from fields including sport, business, entertainment and politics are recognised in this year’s list.

As well as celebrating the success of people already in the public eye, it also highlights the unsung achievements of people who make major contributions to their local communities, to charities and to fields such as education and healthcare.

This includes Anne Croucher, a Tesco worker who raised money to provide Easter chocolates to hundreds of care home residents in Dumfries; Malcolm Fletcher, a saxophonist who helped found the Ely Military Band in 1962; and Joan Lockley, who set up West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue.

All three have been awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire.

The New Year Honours are awarded by the King following recommendations by the prime minister or senior government ministers. Members of the public can also recommend people for an award.

Honours are also given out to mark the King’s birthday in June.

The majority of people on the honours list are appointed as an MBE, OBE or CBE but a few are conferred with more prestigious awards.

In this New Year Honours list seven people are made Companion of the Order of the Bath, while 35 are made either Knight Bachelor or Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In recognition of their public service, MI5 director general Ken McCallum is made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and Tamara Finkelstein, a senior civil servant, is made Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Author Dame Jacqueline Wilson is made Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and the scientist Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, who was chairman of Cancer Research UK until last year, is made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.

Rarer still, the novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is made a Companion of Honour, a select group which is limited to 65 people at any one time.

They are awarded to those who have made a significant contribution to the arts, science, medicine or the government over a long period of time.

Sir Kazuo, who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, has written works including The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.

Past recipients include physicist Stephen Hawking, former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton, Christopher Head and Seema Misra began campaigning against the Post Office after they were prosecuted by the company.

The four former sub-postmasters were among the 700 or so people who the company took legal action against between 1999 and 2015.

This happened after the Post Office’s faulty computer system Horizon appeared to show money was missing from branch accounts.

More than 100 convictions have been overturned, with legal actions and police investigations still taking place.

The scandal has been described as the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office in 2017 in a campaign led by Sir Alan Bates, who was knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours in June.

Their story inspired the award-winning ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was broadcast in January.

On becoming an OBE, Seema Misra said: “I wasn’t expecting it but, as we know, the fight is still on.

“I’m very honoured, at least they have realised that the scandal happened.”

Rebecca Thomson, the journalist who broke the story for Computer Weekly, is appointed an OBE for services to justice.

Hodgkinson is among several athletes to be recognised for their medal-winning efforts this summer.

Kitesurfer Ellie Aldridge and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson are also appointed MBEs, while cyclist Tom Pidcock and rower Helen Glover become OBEs.

Swimmer Duncan Scott is appointed an OBE after becoming Scotland’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals, including two in Paris.

Paralympic swimmers Tully Kearney and Alice Tai also become OBEs, along with rower Erin Kennedy and cyclist Jaco van Gass.

Hannah Cockroft is appointed a CBE after winning a gold medal in each of the last four Paralympic Games.

Penny Briscoe, the chef de mission for Paralympics GB, is also appointed a CBE.

Former Coronation Street cast member Anne Reid, known to millions as Valerie Barlow, is among those who have starred on stage and television to be honoured.

She is appointed a CBE, while former Doctor Who star Tom Baker becomes a MBE.

Kevin Whately, who was the lead actor in Lewis, and West End actress Jill Nalder are appointed OBEs, the latter for her activism around HIV and Aids.

Among the other people from arts and culture recognised for their work is the DJ Steve Lamacq, who said becoming a MBE was an “incredible shock”.

The BBC Radio 6 Music host added: “If I could, I’d dedicate this honour to all the venues and artists and promoters across the country, especially the ones at grassroots level, who have given me such joy over the years, and I’m proud to be one of their champions.”

Actress Anne-Marie Duff is appointed an OBE while Loyd Grossman, author and chairman of The Royal Parks who is also known for his cooking sauces, is knighted for services to heritage.

Commonly-awarded ranks

• Companion of Honour – Limited to 65 people. Recipients wear the initials CH after their name
• Knight or Dame
• CBE – Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• OBE – Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• MBE – Member of the Order of the British Empire
• BEM – British Empire Medal

The honours list also recognises people who have campaigned against domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Among them are Julie Devey and Carole Gould, who are co-founders of Killed Women, a group for people whose female relatives have been killed by men. They become OBEs.

Nicholas Gazzard, founder of the Hollie Gazzard Trust, which supports people experiencing domestic abuse, is also appointed an OBE.

He set up the charity in memory of his daughter after she was murdered in 2014 by her ex-boyfriend.

“We didn’t want her to be another statistic and our aim was to use her story to help others avoid what she went through,” he said.

“I’m sure she’s looking down on us with that huge smile, and proud about what is being achieved in her name.”

Soma Sara, founder of Everyone’s Invited, an anti-rape charity, is appointed a MBE.

The oldest person on the list is 103-year-old Colin Bell. He flew Mosquito combat aircraft in World War Two and he is awarded a Medal of the Order of the British Empire for his charity work.

The medal is also given to one of the two youngest people on the list, Mikayla Beames, who is recognised for her fundraising efforts supporting children with cancer.

She is 18, as is para-swimmer William Ellard who becomes a MBE after winning gold in the S14 200m freestyle at the Paralympics.