Honours have gone to a 101-year-old D-Day veteran who is ‘disappointed’ with the state of modern day Britain – as the names of everyday heroes who made this year’s list are revealed.
Mervyn Kersh, who was recognised for his school talks on Holocaust remembrance and his wartime service, said it was a ‘wonderful thing’ to receive the award.
However, the British Empire Medal bearer also expressed concerns about rising anti-Semitism in the UK.
Mr Kersh, from Cockfosters, north London, explained: ‘It’s disappointing what’s turned out now.
‘What’s disappointing is the anti-Semitism that I see everywhere, hear everywhere, or read.’
He admitted his wartime service was ‘worth it’ but added his efforts to educate young people ‘do not always work’.
The British Army Jewish veteran arrived in Normandy aged 19, three days after the start of the Allies’ D-Day invasion of Nazi-controlled France in June 1944, serving as a technical clerk for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, organising vehicle support.
He was later stationed near Bergen-Belsen when the camp was liberated by British troops in April 1945.
D-Day veteran Mervyn Kersh, awarded BEM for services to Holocaust Remembrance
Mr Kersh is pictured in November last year standing amongst the Standing with Giants silhouettes at the For Your Tomorrow installation at the British Normandy Memorial, in Ver-Sur-Mer, France
Mr Kersh said he would normally tell schoolchildren during his talks about how the conflict began.
He added: ‘There’d be no need for a war now, we’ve got the wrong attitude.’
The veteran also said he ‘absolutely’ saw comparisons between now and the period just before the Second World War, adding that Russia is ‘threatening the west’.
He went on: ‘The top budget should be defence, there’s nothing there for anything else. That’s all there is.
‘Defence must come first, second, third, fourth and fifth, because only if you’re strong, you won’t be attacked.’
Mr Kersh compared today’s Western leaders to Neville Chamberlain, whose 1930s appeasement of Hitler failed, saying: ‘They think they’ve just got to hope and make speeches.’
He added: ‘We’ve got to either have another leader who’s more aggressive, I don’t mean start a war, but aggressive. We’ve got to defend, that’s the first concern.’
The other every day heroes to receive gongs in the New Year Honours list were also revealed last night.
A BEM for charitable chef Ryan Riley – ‘for services to sufferers of loss of taste’
Among them was a chef who founded a cookery school after his terminally ill mother lost the ability to taste food, recognised for services to ‘sufferers of loss of taste’.
Ryan Riley, 32, was joined by a string of community champions including a prison chess teacher and a pair of first responder twins recognised for their remarkable work.
Weeks after losing his mother, Krista, to lung cancer in 2013, Mr Riley won £28,000 at a casino and used it to move to London and found a cookery school, Life Kitchen.
He gained the backing of celebrities including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and Nigella Lawson to create recipes for those who can’t taste due to the effects of chemotherapy.
Now he has received a British Empire Medal, or BEM, in a special category to recognise his achievement.
Mr Riley said: ‘Being awarded is a wonderful thing and something that I did not think would happen, I’m a boy from a council estate in Sunderland.
‘These things don’t happen to people like me, but I’m really proud and totally honoured.
‘My mum would be unbelievably proud if she knew.’
An MBE for voluntary prison worker Carl Portman for encouraging inmates to play chess
In total, some 1,157 recipients were awarded from every part of the UK, with a particular focus this year on those who have gone above and beyond for their communities.
The oldest recipient this year was John Hearn, who at 102 received a BEM for services to Judo and to the community in North East England.
There were two sets of twins in the list, including Ryan Appleton and Dean Appleton from Colchester – both community first responders who received BEMs for services to the community in the East of England.
Alongside them were twins Sonia Dixon and Adrienne Campbell who work together as VIP liaison officers at London Heathrow Airport and receive their BEMs for services to the Aviation Industry.
Carl Portman, 61, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, was made an MBE for services to prisoners for his voluntary work bringing chess into prisons.
He said that being on the list was a ‘surprise and a delight’ which could be a ‘springboard’ for taking chess further into the prison system.
Mr Portman explained chess ‘improves mental health’ as it teaches inmates ‘discipline’ such as the importance of strategy and responsibility.
He said prisoners had told him it had saved them from suicide.
