A MAN described as a ‘great public servant to the people of Pembrokeshire’ has been awarded an MBE for services to the community in Pembrokeshire.

Dr Simon Leslie Hancock, local historian and museum curator, is the presiding member and former chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council.

Cllr Hancock, who is also a magistrate, joined the county council in 1995. one of the authority’s founder members.

Cllr Hancock was a member of Neyland Town Council from 1987 until 2022 and has held the role of mayor on 11 occasions.

Cllr Hancock has also been a member of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority andHywel Dda Health Board.

He is currently the council’s age friendly champion and armed forces champion.

Born and bred in Neyland, and county councillor for Neyland East, he has been the curator of Haverfordwest Town Museum in the town’s castle for more than two decades.

He obtained a Ph.D from Cardiff University in 2015 in recognition of his thesis on Pembrokeshire in the First World War.

Cllr Hancock is well known in the community for his charity work which includes serving on the local boards of Mencap and the Blind Society. He has also served as chairman of the VC Gallery.

He is married to Christina and has two step-daughters, Miss Kim Furness and Mrs Helen Keir.

“I am humbled and delighted that my nearly forty years of service to public life in Pembrokeshire across a variety of areas has received official recognition,” he said.

“I feel that I still have a lot more to contribute with some exciting projects and ideas to look forward to.”