Stewart and Peake included on Queen’s Birthday Honours List

SINGER Rod Stewart and astronaut Tim Peake are both included this year on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

While there is to be a knighthood for Sir Rod for services to music and charity, Major Peake will become a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services to space research and scientific education.

The astronaut, due to return to Earth later this month after spending six months in space, received the news on the International Space Station and said he felt honoured.  

Seventy-one-year-old Stewart commented: “I’ve led a wonderful life and have had a tremendous career thanks to the generous support of the great British public. This monumental honour has topped it off and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Other names on the list this year include Dame Vera Lynn, who joins the Companions of Honour group for her services to entertainment and charity and Downton Abbey actress Penelope Wilton who will be made a dame for her services to drama.

CBEs have been granted to England cricket captain Alastair Cook, former footballer Alan Shearer and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, and TV presenters Ant and Dec and actor Brian Blesses will receive OBEs.

With 1,149 people recognised on the list, 70 per cent of them honoured for work in their communities, the Cabinet Office has said it is the most diverse since the Order of the British Empire was founded in 1917.