A LEADING businessman, a bat conservationist and an animal welfare worker are among men and women in Kent honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Roger De Haan, former chairman of the successful Saga holidays-to-financial services business for the over-50s, has been awarded a CBE for services to business, education and charity.

Mr De Haan has worked for the Sandgate-based company, founded by his late father Sidney in 1951, since he was 17.

In November he announced he was stepping down just before revealing that his family was putting the business up for sale.

Mr De Haan is closely involved in the Folkestone economy and he is also helping to turn around failing local schools.

Judy MacArthur Clark, chairman of Farm Animal Welfare Council, has been awarded a CBE for services to animal welfare.

Canterbury-based Dr MacArthur Clark is also a successful businesswomen, having co-founded Biozone, an award-winning hi-tech bioscience manufacturer. The company, based in Margate, was named Thanet Company of the Year in 2002. She founded it with her husband.

The company makes containers to hold material used in bio-medical research and was founded in 1992. It grew to employ 40 staff and generate turnover (in 2002) of around £3m.

A number of unsung people in the county have been honoured for services to their local communities.

ORDER OF THE BATH

CB

John Anthony Catlin, director of Legal Services, Department for Work and

Pensions, Sevenoaks.

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE

Ruth Carnall, director, change management programme, Department of

Health, Westerham, near Sevenoaks.

Roger Michael De Haan, DL, chair, SAGA Group, for services to business,

Charity and Education, Ashford; Dr Judy Anne MacArthur Clark, chair, Farm Animal Welfare Council, for services to Animal Welfare, Canterbury.

OBE

Professor Robin Richard Baker, director, Ravensbourne College of Design and

Communication, Kent, for services to Higher Education; Professor Richard Anthony Brook, president, Sira Group, for services to the

UK Space Industry, Chislehurst; Sarah Elizabeth Brown, member, Competition Commission, for services to business, Sevenoaks; Frank William Hallett, formerly Deputy Deliverer of the Vote (Production),

House of Commons, Rainham; Cecil Raymond Humphery-Smith, for services to education in Genealogy and Heraldry, Seasalter; Dr Timothy Clive Marrs, chief toxicologist, Food Standards Agency, Edenbridge; Judith Anne Stevenson, headteacher, Robert Owen Early Years Centre, Greenwich, London, for services to Early Years Education, Gravesend.

MBE

David Andrew Bage, for services to the community in Lynsted, Sittingbourne; Donald Beerling, for services to the community in Canterbury; Robert Bevan, for charitable services, Tunbridge Wells; Joan Cordell, JP, for services to the Victims of Crime and to the community in Swale, Sheerness; Samuel Field, for services to the communities in Kent and Dorset; David James, for services to sailing and to the Disabled in East Kent, Herne Bay; Robert Andrew Knight, senior grounds manager, London Borough of Bexley

Council, for services to Local Government, Welling; Alan Henry Maynard, chair, Hawkenbury Allotment Holders' Association, for services to the community in Tunbridge Wells; Pamela Doreen Moseling, leader, Anchor Boys, 2nd West Kent Company,

Boys' Brigade, for services to young people; Brig Donogh Declan O'Brien, for services to the Officers' Association, Bromley; Theodolina Pinto, senior executive officer, Office of Government Commerce, Sidcup; Edwin Ernest Roberts, sub postmaster, for services to the Royal Mail and to the community in the Medway Towns, Maidstone; Michael David Rowe, JP, for services to the Citizens' Advice Bureau, Offham; Shirley Anne Thompson, volunteer batworker, for services to bat conservation in Kent, Whitstable.