Find the full list below
The King’s New Year Honours List for 2026 has recognised a total of 20 people from across Kent, highlighting exceptional achievement and service to communities and causes nationwide.
Twice a year the honours lists see thousands of people bestowed with things like CBEs, MBEs, and OBEs or made a knight or dame. This year, Idris Elba and ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean lead the New Year Honours list while England’s victorious women’s football and rugby teams are also recognised.
Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer is also among those receiving an MBE. The 56-year-old, who was born in Kent, has been recognised for his work as a patron of homeless charity St Mungo’s.
He told the Press Association: “I’m hugely honoured and humbled. I mean, it’s a hell of a thing. It’s not something that I’d ever expected or even thought about. So it’s a huge honour.”
He continued: “It’s all very kind of sudden and a bit of a shock and a surprise. So it’s quite overwhelming, it’s not quite overwhelming, it’s very overwhelming.”
The property expert has worked alongside St Mungo’s since 2010 and said his relationship with them began when he had a home search business in the 1990s finding homes for the “very wealthy” and decided to put a percentage of every fee “back into the bottom end of the market”.
Over the years he has volunteered on various projects, events and fundraising activities for the non-profit organisation which supports people who are homeless and campaigns for change.
In 2023 the presenter lost both his parents in an accident after the car his mother, Anne Spencer, was driving tipped over the edge of a bridge and into the Nailbourne River in Littlebourne, Kent.
From a lifeguard to a clerk, those being honoured reflect the breadth of skill, commitment and achievement found among people in Kent. Find the full list below.
Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
Jane Burston
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Clean Air Fund. For services to Air Quality. (Sevenoaks, Kent)
Sarah Lee
Deputy Director, Education, Employment and Skills, HM Prison and Probation Service. For Public Service. (Canterbury, Kent)
James Anthony Nichols
Deputy Head of Centre, Ministry of Defence. For services to Defence. (Tunbridge Wells, Kent)
Christine Salmon Percival
Clerk, Hybrid and Private Legislation, House of Lords. For services to Parliament. (Sevenoaks, Kent)
Francis Edwin Stuart
Head of Employee Relations, HM Prison and Probation Service. For Public Service. (Maidstone, Kent)
Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Karen Louise Blake
Lately Chief Executive Officer, Tech Talent Charter. For services to Technology and to Diversity. (Tunbridge Wells, Kent)
Christopher Deering
For services to People with Disabilities in the London Borough of Bexley. (Gillingham, Kent) Janet Beverly Dell
Lifeguard. For services to Lifeguarding. (Broadstairs, Kent)
Janet Ann Nichole Fischer
Chief Executive Officer, Live Music Now and Co-Chair, Intra Community Trust. For services to Music and to Charity. (Rochester, Kent)
Valmai Diana Holt
For services to Military History and War Commemoration. (Sandwich, Kent)
Gail McManus
Founder and Director, Private Equity Recruitment. For services to Private Equity and Venture Capital. (Gravesend, Kent)
Kelvin Edward Reynolds
Chief Technical Services Officer and Company Secretary, British Parking Association. For services to Traffic and Parking Management. (Greenhithe, Kent)
Christopher Swadkin
For services to Cricket and to Young People in South East London. (Tunbridge Wells, Kent)
Benjamin David Towers
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Happl. For services to the Startup Business Community, Excellence in Innovation and Enterprise. (Gillingham, Kent)
Alastair David Upton
Chief Executive Officer, Creative Folkestone. For services to Art. (Folkestone, Kent)
Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM)
Penelope Ann Dyson
Secretary, Friends of The Royal British Legion Industries. For Voluntary Service. (Maidstone, Kent)
Robert Harding Hitch
Founder, Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats. For services to Goat Welfare. (Tonbridge, Kent)
Wayne Hodgson
Founder and Chair, Red Eagle Foundation. For services to Children in Kent. (Whitstable, Kent)
Mark Robert Jones
Customer Assistant, Southeastern. For services to Community Railway. (Faversham, Kent)
Stephen Christopher Woodley
Member and lately Chair, Canterbury Lawn Tennis Club. For services to Tennis in Kent. (Canterbury, Kent)
Get more news from KentLive straight to your inbox for free HERE.
