KENT fashion designer Karen Millen has been made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours List for her services to the retail industry.

The co-founder of the high street fashion brand opened her first shop in Maidstone in 1981 and went on to trade successfully in the global marketplace, before selling the business in 2004.

Ms Millen, from the Maidstone area, is one of scores of people in the county to receive a British order of chivalry.

Philip Wynn Owen, the Tonbridge-based Director General of Strategy and Pensions for the Department for Work and Pensions, receives the highest honour in Kent, being made Companion Order of the Bath (CB).

Graham Badman, Kent County Council’s director of children’s services, who lives in Faversham, has been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his work in local government. He is in charge of Kent's 600-plus schools.

Biographer Jenny Uglow, from the Canterbury area, has also been made an OBE for services to literature and publishing.

She has written widely on 18th and 19th century literature and culture and has been acclaimed for biographies on Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and William Hogarth. Her most recent best-seller is a Little History of British Gardening.

Concert pianist and founder of Finchcocks Museum of Early Music in Goudhurst, Richard Burnett, becomes a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to music.

Elizabeth Howe, former head of the CPS in Kent, receives the OBE. She was the architect of a new national CPS policy for dealing with disability hate crimes, and has worked on many high profile cases, including the murder of Sheerness teenager Christopher Alaneme and the £53million Securitas robbery in Tonbridge.

Two Ashford women have been recognised with MBEs for their outstanding work in the community.

The record of Monica Berwick from Sandhyurst Lane, covers a raft of volunteer work most notably with CRUSE the bereavement charity helping clients in turmoil for the past 22 years.

She came to Ashford for London in 1952 to teach physics and maths at Highworth School and stayed 33 years until retirement as senior teacher.

Originally she joined the charity as treasurer working on the administration but for the past dozen years as her mobility declined she has been on-call duty answering telephone distress calls at her homes and linking them with trained counsellors.

Every year she has fielded more than 200 enquiries with many able to get specialist help.

Over the decades she has also been a staunch supporter and singer with her husband Victor with Ashford Choral Society, a former area co-ordinator with Neighbourhood Watch, and one of the three founders of the appeal to restore to 13th century Pilgrims Church of All Saints, Boughton Aluph.

Together the trio raised £200,000 to repair war damage in the ancient building and she still supports current efforts to raise £300,000 to replace the windows.

A similar honour has been awarded to Stella Critchley, from Ashford's Barrow Hill Terrace, for her services to Ashford Youth Theatre which she co-founded 25 years ago when she was a lecturer at South Kent College.

A co-ordinator and general fundraiser she encourages the 40 regular members to organise and run at least two productions a year and many have gone on to professional stage and backstage careers.

Her motto is that youth should be given freedom to express themselves using their energy and vision and the result has been a constant flow of serious drama productions.

The honours list, approved by the Government and The Queen, awards people who have made a difference to society and pays tribute to "outstanding achievement and service right across the community and the nation as a whole".

FULL LIST OF KENT HONOURS

ORDER OF THE BATH CB: Philip Wynn Owen. Director-General, Strategy and Pensions, Department for Work and Pensions (Tonbridge).

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

CBE

Graham Michael Badman, director of Children's Services, Kent County Council, for services to Local Government, (Faversham); Keith Hargrave, lately Headteacher, The Canterbury High School, for services to Education (Deal); Mrs Stella Mbubaegbu, principal and chief executive, Highbury College, Portsmouth and Chair, Black Leadership Initiative, for services to Further Education (Orpington).

OBE

David William Butler, chief executive, National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, for services to the community and to education (Sevenoaks); Miss Elizabeth Howe, general counsel, International Association of Prosecutors, Crown Prosecution Service (West Malling); Ms Karen Millen, co-founder, Karen Millen, for services to the retail industry (Maidstone); Mrs Barbara Elizabeth Riddell, Director of Resources, London Fire Brigade, for services to the Fire and Rescue Service (Edenbridge); Dr Richard Harry Brooke Sturt, lately chair, Consumer Council for Water (Southern), for services to the Water Industry (Deal); Miss Barbara Thorndick, chief executive, West Kent Housing Association, for services to Social Housing (London, NW5); Andrew Stewart Trotter, QPM. deputy chief constable, British Transport Police, for services to the Police (Tonbridge); Mrs Jennifer Sheila Uglow, biographer and editorial director, Chatto and Windus, for services to literature and to publishing (Canterbury).

MBE

Geoffrey Allen, for services to the community in Bromley (Bromley); Mrs Kathleen Allen, for services to the community in Bromley (Bromley); Mrs Monica Joyce Berwick, for services to the community in Ashford (Ashford); Ms Jacqueline Best, administrative officer, Regions Directorate, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Swanley); Mrs Valerie Bloom, for services to Poetry (Swanley); Robert John Bright, council member and director, Skillfast-UK, for services to training (Sevenoaks); Richard Leslie Burnett, concert pianist and founder, Finchcocks Museum of Early Music, Goudhurst, for services to music (Goudhurst); Mrs Jean Byers, for services to the League of Friends of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital (Canterbury); David Kenneth Campbell, area operations manager for South London, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, for services to the NHS (Dartford); Mrs Stella Critchely, for services to Ashford Youth Theatre (Ashford); Peter Geoffrey George, support staff, Kent Police, for services to the Police (Sevenoaks); Mrs Joan Haxby, keep fit teacher, for services to physical fitness in Kent (Swanley); Graham Houghton, district manager, Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth District Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions (Kent);

Dr Cyril Isenberg, for services to physics (Canterbury); Chris Knight, business support, budget co-ordination team, HM Treasury (Welling); Danny James Lavender, higher officer, London Compliance Office, South East, HM Revenue and Customs (Orpington); Ms Jane Le Baigue, lately non-executive director, Bromley Primary Care Trust, for services to the NHS (Bromley); Frank Marven, for services to the community in Gravesend (Gravesend); Mrs Maureen Rosemary May, teaching assistant, Slade Green Infant School, Bexley, for services to education (Erith); William Trevor Moses, for services to business and to the Dover Counselling Centre in Kent (Faversham); David Pinchin, for services to the Independent Monitoring Board, HM Prison Belmarsh, London (Westerham); Miss Nola Margaret Rae, for services to drama and to mime (Bromley); Miss Thelma Margaret Rees, for services to the veterinary profession (Bromley); Mrs Jacqueline Rolfe, welfare co-ordinator, The Cedars Pupil Referral Unit, Maidstone, for services to education (Maidstone); Richard Michael Sams, chair of Governors, the Malling School and Holmesdale Technology College Federation, Kent, for services to Education (Tunbridge Wells); Mrs Jill Angela Mary Scott, founder, Scotts Project Trust, for services to Young People with Learning Disabilities in Kent (Hildenborough); Robert James Vinson, detective ch inspector, Kent Police, for services to the Police (Broadstairs); Mrs Vivien Rosemary Watterson. district business manager, London Traffic Prosecution Service, Crown Prosecution Service (Sidcup).

QPM

QUEEN'S POLICE MEDAL Joseph Holness, Constable, Kent Police.