Hundreds of people are being recognised for their services to the country in this year’s New Year Honours.

Here are just some of the people who earned a gong this year.

Sir Gareth Southgate is knighted for services to association football after leading England to the finals of the Euros in 2020 and 2024.

Sir Stephen Fry also receives a knighthood in recognition for his services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.

London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been honoured by being knighted for political and public service, having held his role since 2016.

Beloved author Jacqueline Wilson, who created the Tracy Beaker series, has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature.

Television presenter Alan Titchmarsh becomes a CBE while Scottish journalist Jackie Bird is made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is made a Companion of Honour for services to literature while author Robert Harris becomes a CBE.

Lee Castleton, Josephine Hamilton, Christopher David Head, Dr Kay Catherine Sheila Hilary Linnell, Seema Misra, Richard Gresham Haley all receive honours for their work on behalf of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters following the Horizon scandal.

Read more:
Stand-out names receiving New Year Honours
Hundreds of unsung heroes receive recognition

In sport, twenty-two-year-old Keely Hodgkinson earns an MBE after claiming gold in the 800m at the Olympics and becoming the sixth fastest woman in history at the distance.

Two-time Olympic champion Tom Pidcock is made an OBE after winning gold in mountain biking, while Paralympian Hannah Cockroft becomes a CBE after coming first in the T34 100m and 800m.

Swimmers Duncan Scott (OBE) and William Ellard (MBE), sailor Ellie Aldridge (MBE) and rowers Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry, Emily Craig, Dr Imogen Grant and Georgie Brayshaw, Gregg Stevenson (all MBE), fencer Dimitri Coutya (MBE) are all honoured after their gold medals at the Games.

Paratriathlete David Ellis (MBE), shotputter Sabrina Fortune, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, archer Nathan MacQueen, gymnast Bryony Page and cyclists Sophie Capewell, Sophie Unwin, Finley Graham, Dannielle Khan and Elizabeth Jordan are all made MBEs.

Olympic and Paralympic champions Helen Glover, Samantha Kinghorn, Lauren Rowles, Alice Tai, Dina Asher-Smith and Jaco van Gass are also all made OBEs, while Stephen Clegg is made an MBE.

The former captain of the Northern Ireland women’s football team, Marissa Callaghan, has been made an MBE.

Former Masterchef and Through The Keyhole presenter Loyd Grossman is awarded a knighthood.

Actresses Carey Mulligan, Sarah Lancashire and Coronation Street star Anne Reid become Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama, while Desmond’s star Carmen Munroe is made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Actor Eddie Marsan, Inspector Morse and Lewis actor Kevin Whately and Bafta-winning actress Anne-Marie Duff are made OBEs.

Radio and TV presenter and former Popstars winner Myleene Klass, Radio presenter and DJ Steve Lamacq and former Doctor Who star Tom Baker are made MBEs.

Costume designer Sandy Powell, meanwhile, is made a CBE.

Former F1 driver and broadcaster Martin Brundle has become an OBE and former Scotland and Liverpool footballer Alan Hansen is made an MBE.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry becomes a dame and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street is knighted.

Carole Gould and Julie Devey, co-founders of Killed Women, are made OBEs for their campaigning work for women murdered in their homes.

Read more from Sky News:
Five charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death
Smoking a single cigarette could take 20 mins off life expectancy
Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright expecting first baby

Cancer fundraiser Ivan Black is made an MBE after raising more than £700,000 over his lifetime.

18-year-old cancer survivor Mikayla Beames, the joint youngest on the list, is awarded a British Empire Medal after founding her cancer charity.

Shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who has discovered 29 shipwrecks over his career, is made an OBE.

Joeli Brearley, founder of parents’ rights group Pregnant Then Screwed, is made an MBE.

Nathaniel Dye, a music teacher who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023, has said he hopes being made an MBE will be a “springboard” for his campaigning work.

Eric Brown, 78, is made an MBE for his campaigning work for victims of terrorism after founding the South East Fermanagh Foundation.

Also awarded an MBE is retired solicitor Gordon Hay, who was given the honour for services to the promotion of the Doric language, which is spoken in northeast Scotland.

He spent 17 years translating the New Testament and then the Old Testament into Doric, the first time the whole text has ever been changed into any variant of the Scots language.

The oldest person on the list is 103-year-old World War Two Mosquito pilot Colin Bell, who is given a British Empire Medal (BEM) for charitable fundraising and public speaking.

The King’s GP Dr Douglas Glass and his physician Professor Richard Leach have also been recognised for their service to the Royal Family, with Dr Glass being appointed a Commander and Prof Leach being made a Lieutenant of the RVO.

Another to be knighted is head of MI5 Ken McCallum.

More than 1,200 people from across the UK received honours in the latest list.

Women make up 49% of those honoured, with 12% of recipients from ethnic minority backgrounds.

3% of people on the list identify as LGBT, 15% have disabilities or long-term health conditions and 33% are from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Former England manager Gareth Southgate, London mayor Sadiq Khan and actor Stephen Fry have been knighted in the New Year Honours.

Others who have received honours include a host of Team GB athletes – among them gold medal-winning runner Keely Hodgkinson – as well as author Jacqueline Wilson and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh.

Honours have also been awarded to some of the wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters following the Horizon scandal.

Sir Gareth, who has been knighted for services to association football, led the England team to the finals of the Euros in 2020 and 2024, as well as the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup.

However, the Three Lions did not manage to win any tournaments under his leadership, and he resigned following their 2-1 final defeat to Spain in July.

His knighthood matches that earned by Sir Bobby Robson, the last England manager to take a team to the World Cup semis. Fifty-four-year-old Southgate declined to comment on the honour.

Sir Stephen, best known for appearing in Blackadder and hosting quiz show QI, has been recognised for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.

The actor has been president of mental health charity Mind since 2011 and also supported the conservation group Fauna and Flora International.

He said he was “startled and enchanted” after receiving a letter informing him of the knighthood, adding: “When you are recognised it does make you feel a bit ‘crikey’, but I think the most emotional thing is that when I think of my childhood, and my dreadful unhappiness and misery and stupidity, and everything that led to so many failures as a child.

“And for my parents, really, what a disaster. I mean every time the phone rang, they thought, ‘Oh, God, what has Stephen done now’. It was a sort of joke in the family.”

London mayor Sir Sadiq has been honoured for political and public service, having held his role since 2016.

Read more:
Southgate, Fry and Khan knighted
Hundreds of unsung heroes receive recognition

He said he was “humbled” to have received a knighthood and “couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I would one day be mayor of London“.

“It’s the honour of my life to serve the city I love and I will continue to build the fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London that all of the capital’s communities deserve,” he said.

Conservative London councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman launched a petition to “stop” the knighthood which surpassed 200,000 signatures earlier this month.

Beloved author Jacqueline Wilson, who created the Tracy Beaker series, has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature.

Actress Carey Mulligan and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh have become Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is made a Companion of Honour for services to literature, actor Eddie Marsan is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Myleene Klass becomes a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Read more from Sky News:
Five charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death
Smoking a single cigarette could take 20 mins off life expectancy
Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright expecting first baby

A number of gongs also went to athletes following this year’s Paris Olympics, where Team GB won 65 medals, and the Paralympics, where Team ParalympicsGB finished in second place with 49 gold medals.

Twenty-two-year-old Keely Hodgkinson earned an MBE after claiming gold in the 800m at the Olympics, setting a new British record of one minute 54.61 seconds, making her the sixth fastest woman at the distance in history.

Two-time Olympic champion Tom Pidcock, 25, has been made an OBE after winning gold in mountain biking, while Paralympian Hannah Cockroft becomes a CBE after coming first in the T34 100m and 800m.

Other honoured gold-medallists include swimmer Duncan Scott (OBE), sailor Ellie Aldridge (MBE) and rowers Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry and Georgie Brayshaw (all MBEs).

Former F1 driver and broadcaster Martin Brundle has become an OBE and former Scotland and Liverpool footballer and BBC pundit Alan Hansen is an MBE.

Horizon IT scandal victims Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton, Christopher Head and Seema Misra have been made OBEs for services to justice.

Politicians who received honours include Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who has become a dame, and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who has been knighted.

The oldest person on the list is 103-year-old World War Two Mosquito pilot Colin Bell, who was given a British Empire Medal (BEM) for charitable fundraising and public speaking.

The youngest to receive honours are 18-year-olds Mikayla Beames, given a BEM for her fundraising efforts supporting children with cancer, and para-swimmer William Ellard, made an MBE after winning gold in the S14 200m freestyle at the Paris Paralympics.

More than 1,200 people from across the UK received honours in the latest list.

More than 1,200 people from across the UK have made it on to this New Year’s honours list, with a lot of famous faces getting recognised. 

But while Gareth Southgate, Stephen Fry and Keely Hodgkinson may make the headlines, hundreds of unsung heroes have been recognised for their services to the country’s communities.

Here’s a small selection of the honour recipients from around the UK.

‘A bereaved mother is not to be messed with’

The co-founders of a group supporting families affected by male violence have been made Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours.

Carole Gould and Julie Devey, co-founders of Killed Women, started campaigning after their daughters, Ellie Gould and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, were murdered in their homes.

Both daughters were killed when they ended relationships with their killers.

Now, Ms Gould and Ms Devey are campaigning to see an increase in the starting tariff for murders in the home, from 15 years to 25 years, the same as for killings outside the home.

They say it is “insulting and disrespectful to those women to say that their lives are worth 10 years less”.

“By accepting the OBEs it will continue to shine a light on our campaigning and will keep the many unjust issues surrounding violence against women and girls in the spotlight,” said the co-founders in a statement.

“A bereaved mother is not to be messed with.”

Read more:
Southgate, Fry and Khan knighted
Stand-out names on New Year Honours list

‘All I’ve ever wanted to do is help one person’

A man who raised more than £700,000 for cancer charities said being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) has pushed him to raise even more.

Ivan Black, 62, from Co Tyrone, began raising money after his brother Ian died from leukaemia aged 23.

He then lost his sister to breast cancer and his father to stomach cancer.

“All I’ve ever wanted to do is help one person,” he said.

“When I received the notification I couldn’t read the letter, I had tears in my eyes.”

Mr Black said he wanted to dedicate the honour to everyone who is battling cancer.

He said: “My brother, my sister, my father, this is all for them.

Joint youngest recipient

The joint-youngest person on the honours list is also being recognised for her charitable work in cancer.

18-year-old Mikayla Beames was diagnosed with cancer at just four years old.

She has now been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) after founding Team Mikayla, a charity that grants the wishes of children suffering from cancer and has raised more than £300,000 to do so.

‘Working families are in need of support’

The founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, a parental rights organisation, said her MBE is “important recognition” of the struggles faced by working families.

Joeli Brearley, who is stepping down from the charity after ten years, said being recognised for her services to working families is “what it’s always been about”.

“I think that people don’t really understand how much working families are in need of support right now,” she said.

“The childcare crisis, the issues of parental leave, low-paid work, there’s just so many problems.

Ms Brearley said the charity should “hold [Labour’s] feet to the fire” on its manifesto pledges as it reviews parental leave and introduces new employment rights.

Read more from Sky News:
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay cancelled due to ‘extreme weather’
President Biden leads tributes to Jimmy Carter
One of UK’s oldest golf clubs fights for its future

OBE for shipwreck hunting may boost mission

A shipwreck hunter who has been made an OBE hopes the honour will help bring a historic anchor back to the UK to commemorate the Windrush generation.

David Mearns is part of a team trying to bring the anchor of HMT Empire Windrush to the surface.

The ship arrived in Essex in 1948, carrying primarily Caribbean migrants answering Britain’s call to address post-war labour shortages.

It sank off the coast of Algeria in 1954 and now, the Windrush Anchor Foundation is trying to recover its 1.5-tonne anchor to put it on permanent display.

“We want to recover that stern anchor, restore it, and bring it back to England and use it as a centrepiece in a public monument, a memorial to celebrate the contributions that the Windrush generations and their descendants have made to this country in terms of immigration and a positive force for multicultural Britain,” said the 66-year-old.

“I will volunteer my time gladly to make that project happen – it’s five years in the making, and hopefully this OBE will help raise the profile of that.

Mr Mearns said he has located 29 major shipwrecks in the past.