[BITList] Johnny J missed out again

[John Feltham]

More civil servant drones?

You betcha.

ooroo




 
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+99NEW ARTICLES <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/>Top <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4086030/The-REAL-heroes-expose-tawdry-joke-honours-Britain-s-Dambuster-oldest-Olympian-REFUSED-gongs-list-knighted-foreign-aid-boss-gave-Posh-OBE.html#top>Share

The REAL heroes who expose what a tawdry joke out honours system is: Britain's last Dambuster and our oldest Olympian were REFUSED gongs in list that knighted foreign aid boss - and gave Posh an OBE  
British Dambuster George Johnson, 95, was proposed for an honour but rejected
Squadron Leader and former Olympian Bill Lucas will also not receive the award
Victoria Beckham will receive an OBE from the Queen for services to fashion 
The mother-of-four, 42, launched her first fashion line back in 2008
By ROBERT HARDMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Robert+Hardman+for+the+Daily+Mail>
PUBLISHED: 01:15, 4 January 2017 | UPDATED: 01:16, 4 January 2017

    <> e-mail <mailto:?subject=Read%20this:%20The%20REAL%20heroes%20who%20expose%20what%20a%20tawdry%20joke%20out%20honours%20system%20is:%20Britain%27s%20last%20Dambuster%20and%20our%20oldest%20Olympian%20were%20REFUSED%20gongs%20in%20list%20that%20knighted%20foreign%20aid%20boss%20-%20and%20gave%20Posh%20an%20OBE%20%C2%A0&body=The%20REAL%20heroes%20who%20expose%20what%20a%20tawdry%20joke%20out%20honours%20system%20is%3A%20Britain%27s%20last%20Dambuster%20and%20our%20oldest%20Olympian%20were%20REFUSED%20gongs%20in%20list%20that%20knighted%20foreign%20aid%20boss%20-%20and%20gave%20Posh%20an%20OBE%20%C2%A0%0A%0AEven%20before%20our%20first%20glimpse%20of%20the%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Honours%20list%2C%20there%20were%20howls%20of%20complaint%20when%20news%20of%20Victoria%20Beckham%20OBE%20leaked%20out%20in%20advance%2C%20writes%20Robert%20Hardman.%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-4086030%2FThe-REAL-heroes-expose-tawdry-joke-honours-Britain-s-Dambuster-oldest-Olympian-REFUSED-gongs-list-knighted-foreign-aid-boss-gave-Posh-OBE.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top%0A%0A%0AMost%20Read%20Articles%3A%0A%0ADrug%20dealer%20shot%20dead%20through%20windscreen%20by%20police%20marksman%20had%20his%20home%20covered%20in%20over%2010%20CCTV%20cameras%20-%20as%20it%27s%20revealed%20he%20had%20a%20%27firearm%27%20in%20his%20car%C2%A0%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-4082864%2FMan-shot-dead-police-sliproad-M62-pre-planned-operation.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0A%27If%20anything%20happens%20just%20make%20sure%20you%20look%20after%20the%20boys%27%3A%20Primary%20school%20teacher%27s%20tragic%20plea%20to%20husband%20just%20hours%20before%20she%20died%20after%20%27smirking%20midwives%27%20ignored%20her%20pleas%20for%20C-section%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-4084700%2FPrimary-school-teacher-gave-birth-second-son-died-just-eight-hours-later-smirking-midwives-ignored-pleas-C-section-not-epidural.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0AThe%20incredible%20moment%20boy%2C%20two%2C%20shows%20fantastic%20strength%20and%20saves%20his%20twin%20brother%20from%20being%20crushed%20by%20a%20falling%20dresser%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-4083238%2FIncredible-moment-two-year-old-Utah-boy-saves-twin-brother-crushed-beneath-fallen-dresser.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0A>  <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4086030/The-REAL-heroes-expose-tawdry-joke-honours-Britain-s-Dambuster-oldest-Olympian-REFUSED-gongs-list-knighted-foreign-aid-boss-gave-Posh-OBE.html#socialLinks>
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The last surviving British Dambuster, Squadron Leader George 'Johnny' Johnson had been proposed for an honour but rejected

Even before our first glimpse of the New Year’s Honours list, there were howls of complaint when news of Victoria Beckham OBE leaked out in advance.

The din grew even louder when the list duly appeared and we saw other awards, notably a knighthood for the man in charge of squandering Britain’s chaotic foreign aid budget and the mandatory gongs for Tory donors.

And now comes fresh outrage. Perhaps the most damning of the lot, it concerns those who were not in the New Year’s Honours at all.

For if anything sums up the need for reform of this tired and increasingly dubious selection process, it is the absence of two men — genuine ‘heroes’ — who should have been a shoo-in for national recognition long before the usual tranche of luvvies of a certain age, sporting celebrities and Civil Service time-servers.

Yesterday, there were cross-party calls for a complete rethink of the system following the news that the last surviving British Dambuster, Squadron Leader George ‘Johnny’ Johnson, 95, had been proposed for an honour but rejected.

Mr Johnson had been part of the heroic 1943 raid on three German dams, an operation so bold in its ambition and breathtaking in its execution that it transformed the morale of wartime Britain.

Pride

More than 70 years later, Paul Walmlsey, a friend of the former teacher and local councillor, decided to nominate Mr Johnson for an honour, though not in recognition of his wartime heroics (for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal) and nor for mere longevity.

Rather, he proposed an award for all his work educating younger generations about the war and raising funds for Royal Air Force causes. Still active as a public speaker — he recently published his memoirs — Mr Johnson does it all for charity.

But the suggestion fell on deaf ears. ‘He deserves an honour much more than all those people who have been rewarded for just doing their jobs,’ Mr Walmsley, 69, said. He now plans to appeal to Downing Street.


Mr Johnson (pictured far left with the 617 Squadron) had been part of the heroic 1943 raid on three German dams

Today, the Mail can reveal another equally deserving figure who has also been rejected in the New Year’s Honours. Indeed, the more you learn about Squadron Leader Bill Lucas, of West Sussex, the more you have to wonder what sort of half-wits the Cabinet Office employs to sift through these nominations.

Bill Lucas, 99, is a man who should have been recognised many years ago — and no doubt would have been if he was a celebrity. A former Bomber Command pilot — he received the Distinguished Flying Cross during a mind-boggling 81 operations — he returned to an insurance job in civilian life just in time to compete at the 1948 London Olympics.

Bill was selected for the 5000 metres, running against the Czech legend Emil Zatopek at Wembley. He still remembers his wife and his mother conjuring up extra meat rations and how he had to catch a bus, train and Tube from the family home in Croydon to get to his qualifying heat on time.

Though he gave his all, Bill was pipped to a place in the final but still looks back on it all with great pride. He is now Britain’s oldest Olympian as he prepares to mark his 100th birthday in a few days’ time.

But the Olympics also marked a beginning, not an end. For decade after decade he spent his spare time organising amateur athletics events great and small for nothing more than his love of the sport.

At one of them, he noticed a talented young runner, name of Sebastian Coe. At another, he shared a commentary box with Harold Abrahams, of Chariots Of Fire fame.

Devoted

A lifelong member of South London’s Belgrave Harriers running club — he is their longest-serving member by a country mile — he has received a special award from them for a record 81 years in amateur athletics.

In recent years, however, he has devoted all his time to campaigning for the magnificent new International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln — a project of which Johnny Johnson is also a passionate supporter.

Bill was on his way to yet another fundraising event for the centre near his Sussex home in November when the car carrying him and his wife, Sheena, overturned near Burgess Hill and the couple had to be cut out of the wreckage.



Bill Lucas , 99, (pictured left during WW2 and, right, today) is a man who should have been recognised many years ago. He is a former Bomber Command pilot and Olympian 

They were in hospital for four weeks with several broken bones but managed to escape on Christmas Eve and have been at home ever since.

Long before that, unbeknown to Bill, a family friend in

Scotland had decided that here was a man who deserved some sort of national recognition, not that he would ever say so himself.

So, in 2015, she obtained the nomination forms with which any member of the public can propose an unsung hero and submitted the necessary paperwork a year ago. She nudged the Cabinet Office during the summer, as the Rio Olympics kicked off, to remind them about Britain’s senior Olympian.

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The application, she was assured, was in hand. And so she waited for the Honours List to appear. But, as with Johnny Johnson, nothing happened.

Given that Bill is about to turn 100, you would imagine there might be a modicum of urgency in dealing with this. Did they forget to look at his nomination?

Or did they look at it and decide he wasn’t a worthy recipient of, say, an MBE? A Cabinet Office spokesman declines to comment. Either way it beggars belief.

Selfless

Bill will, no doubt, be cheered by his birthday card from the Queen as he marks his century in his bandages on Monday week. Yet what on earth is going on inside the honours system?

It is important to note that most names on the latest Honours List — as on each of these twice-yearly lists — are a cross-section of ordinary people who have done extraordinary things with little or no fanfare.

I am not suggesting for one minute that the Melton Mowbray paraplegic fundraiser receiving the MBE for ‘charitable and voluntary services to spinal injury research’, or the Swansea volunteer in line for an MBE for his selfless work at HM Coastguard, Mumbles, do not merit their awards. Of course, they do.

But it does stick in the craw to see the three-tier recognition process. There is one route for those who devote much of their lives to doing stuff which changes the lives of others. There is one route for unquestionable excellence.

And there is a third for those who have merely gone about their job, be it in public service or the public eye. David Cameron’s resignation honours list last year came in for widespread criticism with its baubles for spin doctors and stylists.


Victoria Beckham will receive an OBE from the Queen for services to fashion

Theresa May’s spin doctors have now been busy blaming any shortcomings in the latest New Year list on Mr Cameron, though it won’t wash given the huge quota of medals for the Rio Olympics which took place long after Mrs May’s arrival in No 10.

The real problem is that the system is institutionally rather than politically biased — and star-struck, too. Hence Victoria Beckham OBE. Hence the disproportionate preponderance of luvvies at the top end — like the knighthood for Mark Rylance.

The Wolf Hall actor spends much of his off-stage life denouncing the evil Tories and ‘austerity’ but that hasn’t stopped him being elevated to the highest rung of chivalry’s ladder.

Maybe those who draw up these lists assume that old war veterans have enough campaign medals as it is. Maybe they do not wish to be seen to reward longevity.

But that is to miss the point entirely.

Men like Johnny Johnson and Bill Lucas are exceptional because they fought a war and also went on to put something back in the world that followed.

Bill might well have won a medal at an earlier Olympics. He was competing in national finals in 1938 and had been selected to run the next Olympic 1500 metres when war intervened. By the time he finally pulled on an Olympic vest eight years later, he was 31 and, by his own admission, long in the tooth.

He’s not remotely bitter and blames just one person. ‘I was all set to run at the Helsinki Olympics in 1940 but that didn’t happen,’ he says. ‘And then the 1944 Games got cancelled, too. All thanks to that man, Hitler.’

Blame

Having spent the war, like Mr Johnson, in the most dangerous unit of the lot — the odds of surviving Bomber Command were considerably lower than the odds of surviving the Battle of the Somme in World War I — Mr Lucas still wanted to do his bit.

He carried on competing at national and county levels as well as taking on more and more of the boring duties that keep amateur sport ticking over.

He never for one moment did it for any reward, let alone a gong. The thought never occurred to him. But it should have occurred to others.

That is precisely what the honours system is for. Former defence minister and qualified pilot, Sir Gerald Howarth, MP for Aldershot, has promised to raise the cases of Messrs Lucas and Johnson in Parliament. It is certainly not enough for the Government to blame its predecessors and hope this just goes away.

There is, surely, nothing honourable about an honours system which can find room to reward a legal adviser from the Government Legal Department ‘for L



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