by Emma Grove and Hayley Robinson

Three of the area’s residents have been made MBEs in the New Year’s Honours list.

Betty Boswell is to be honoured for services to the community and Robin Castle for services to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI).

Former borough and county councillor, Peter Morgan, has also been recognised for his service to the community.

They will receive their honours at some point in the next six months.

Mrs Boswell has been a volunteer for Sheerness Community Centre for almost 20 years.

Each year she postpones her own festive celebrations to help organise the Crisis at Christmas Scheme and she is also a volunteer for the HomeStart programme, which offers help and advice to families with young children.

In the past, Mrs Boswell was also involved in the Sheerness Foyer and the Swale Community Against Drugs (SCAD) scheme.

The 67-year-old lives with her husband Ron in Medway Road, Sheerness, and between them they have eight children, 16 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

Earlier this month, Mrs Boswell and fellow Crisis at Christmas volunteer Carol Wraight were recognised for their efforts by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

She said it was a complete surprise to receive the MBE nomination and is looking forward to the ceremony at Buckingham Palace later this year.

She added: “I couldn’t believe it when I opened the envelope – I was absolutely gob-smacked.

“I’m honoured to receive it – I’m a complete royalist so it will be wonderful.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone else who volunteers – there’s so many hard working volunteers on this Island so maybe
I can take it on behalf of them as well.”

Mr Castle is to be honoured with an MBE for his services to the RNLI.

He is coxswain and mechanic at Sheerness Lifeboat Station – a position he has held since 1981.

Mr Castle said he got the job at the lifeboat station two days after being made redundant from Medway Ports and still enjoys every minute of the job.

His job as a full-time coxswain is to look after the everyday running of the station and the boats and he is also in charge of the boat when at sea.

Mr Castle, a father of two and grandfather of two, lives in Halfway Road, Halfway, with his partner Rosemary Harris.

As well as now having an MBE to his name, Mr Castle was awarded a bronze bravery medal by the RNLI for services during the 1987 hurricane.

Mr Castle, 55, said he felt humbled to be honoured with an MBE for doing his job.

He said: “It shows how you’re appreciated. I’m overcome – it’s something you wouldn’t normally expect in life.”

Mr Morgan, who has served as both a borough and a county councillor, set up the Local History Museum in Sittingbourne and is chairman of the Swale Seniors’ Forum and of the Sittingbourne Music Society.

The 83-year-old said: “I am very flattered and grateful to have received an MBE for my services to the community.

"I must also acknowledge the great encouragement and support I have received over the years from many friends, colleagues, associates and supporters in the community ventures with which I have been associated.”

“I have found that, in Swale in general, and in Sittingbourne in particular, there are many people who respond willingly when I appeal for help with a campaign or project to benefit the community.

“For example, I could never have realised my dream to set up a Local History Museum in Sittingbourne without the help and generosity of literally hundreds of people whom I am now privileged to call my friends.

“Both during my service on Swale Borough Council and on the Kent County Council I found that the gratitude of the people I helped was reward enough.

"This honour of granting me an MBE is now 'the icing on the cake’. I am deeply touched by it and am spurred on to continue to serve my adoptive town and borough in every way I can.”

Earlier this month, Mr Morgan was given the title Honorary Alderman by Kent County Council in recognition of his services to the people of Kent.

It is the first time the council has exercised its powers to confer these awards since it was given the power to do so under the Local Government Act in 1972.

Mr Morgan served as the Liberal Democrat member for Swale central. He was elected to the county council in 1990, retiring in 2005.

He was vice-chairman of the county council from 1994 until 1995 and chairman from 1996 until 1997.