by Nicola Forman

A FORMER Borden Grammar School pupil has been made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Brian Shrubsall originally from Borden is a senior scientist in the Physical Sciences department at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down near Salisbury.

The 61-year-old is part of the team that develops and designs armour for military vehicles.

He is an international vehicle armour specialist, and has played a major role in the definition or the armour systems for most of the UK’s heavy armoured vehicle.

These include Challenger 2, the main British army battle tank, and Warrior the infantry fighting vehicle, prior to their deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, making them safer for service personnel with improved armour protection.

Mr Shrubsall says of his award: “I am highly honoured and flattered to have received this award. It is a source of great satisfaction to know that I’ve been able to contribute to the safety of our armoured forces.”

He says he’s always had an interest in military matters, even as a teenager, and after reading pure and applied maths at Hull University he started working for the Ministry of Defence in 1969.

Firstly at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common where he was based for 32 years. Brian continued his work on armour design at Dstl when it was formed in 2001.

He added: “I have been in a very privileged position and am very proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to design and research of heavy vehicle armour.

“There have been very significant developments in this field over the years and the changing challenges make the work so interesting to me."