New Year's Honours for county's finest

Paula Craig, the daughter of Stan and Phyl Craig of Pen yr aber, Fishguard, and Adrian Beckett, the son of Dorothy and John Beckett, Hakin, Milford Haven, have both been made MBEs.

Paula, who works with the serious crime directorate which mainly deals with murder investigations, has continued with her job despite being left paralysed and in a wheelchair after a road accident in May 2001. She was knocked from her bike while training for a triathlon.

She had begun running after she joined the Metropolitan police force 19 years ago and ran her first marathon aged 31.

She was determined to continue her sporting activities and within a year of the accident she completed the 2002 London Marathon in two hours 48 minutes coming in third behind Tanni Grey Thompson and winner F. Porcellato.

She completed her first triathlon in her home town of Fishguard and has taken part in other events in Britain and abroad.

She has also raised money for Aspire, the charity which integrates people with spinal injuries and helped her after her accident.

Paula, says she is absolutely over the moon over the New Year's Honour. She admitted it was difficult keeping it a secret from her parents but said it was worth it to see their reaction.

"It was a fantastic build-up to the New Year," said Paula, who has just done her written Inspector's exam and is waiting to complete the second part.

Sergeant Adrian Beckett, a member of the Band of Her Majesty's Welsh Guards based in London, has been awarded the MBE for services to the Army Cadet Force.

Born in Milford Haven, he first studied music under the direction of the then Hakin CP School headmaster Maldwyn Thomas.

His first instrument was violin, tutored by Mary Luke, and he progressed to the piano and at Milford Haven School was instructed on trumpet by Neil Martin.

He was a member of the Milford Haven Town band and Milford Haven Jazz Band for nearly 10 years until he joined the Army in 1989.

He has played at the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, national events such as the Queen's Birthday Parade, The Festival of Remembrance and Cenotaph Parade, and at the Queen Mother's Funeral and the VE and VJ day celebrations.

He has worked in all corners of the world, most recently in Hollywood, San Diego, Seattle, The L'Arc de Triomphe Races in Paris, The World fishing Exhibition in Spain, The Edinburgh Tattoo and Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Georgia.

While in Georgia he became firm friends with the late Lord Parry of Neyland.

In 1991 he was asked to start the Army Cadet Force Music Department to co-ordinate military bands and music. The department now boasts 217 military bands, 34 corps of drums and eight pipe bands in Scotland, involving 2,000 young men and women in ACF music.

In his spare time he has worked with the English Touring Opera, amateur dramatic productions and pop groups Status Quo and The Hollies.

Two leading figures in Pembrokeshire agriculture have both been awarded MBEs.

Twin brothers Meurig and Mansel Raymond received awards in the New Year Honours List for their services to agriculture.

The awards come just months after Meurig was elected vice-president of the National Farmers Union of England and Wales.

The Raymond brothers farm 2,700 acres in north Pembrokeshire, growing 1,600 acres of combinable crops.

They have a herd of 600 dairy cows with 300 followers. The partnership also has 600 head of beef cattle and around 2,000 store lambs fattened during the winter.

Meurig, aged 51, was elected local branch chairman of the NFU in 1979 and Pembrokeshire county chairman in 1988.

In 1992 he became the Welsh NFU treasurer and delegate to the finance and organisation committee at headquarters and has been the Pembrokeshire delegate on the NFU Council since 1994.

He served as vice-chairman of the NFU's cereals committee between 1999 and 2001, sat on the NFU's employment and education committee and now serves on the agricultural wages board. He is also chairman of the NFU's audit committee.

Meurig also sits on the Home Grown Cereals Authority and in 2000 was made a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

He is married to Hilary and has three children, Paul, Nicola, who is general manager of the Welsh Meat Company, and Jonathan.

Mansel, who is married to Ros, is an elected farmer director of First Milk Ltd and the Haverfordwest Cheese Company Ltd.

He has held a number of positions within the NFU including vice chairman of the national NFU milk committee and chairman of the Welsh milk committee.

Last year he was appointed Welsh Milk Board chairman of NFU Cymru's new Welsh Commodity Boards.

The formation of the commodity boards followed the biggest reform of the NFU in its 95-year history, which included the revamping of the union's old style committee meetings.

Mansel is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies. He sits on the regional committee for Wales of the Milk Development Council.

St Davids lifeboat coxswain, Malcolm Gray, who receives a well-deserved MBE in the New Year Honours List for services to the RNLI, has been in command of the lifeboat for ten years, was second coxswain for five years and has been a member of the crew for 33 years.

He was second coxswain in 1989, when coxswain David Chant was awarded an RNLI bronze medal for the rescue of the trawler Stephanie Jane, and himself received the Thanks of the RNLI on vellum in 1999 for towing the coastal tanker Blackfriar off Musselwick beach.

A city councillor and former mayor of St Davids in 2000-01, he is the son of the late Captain Andrew Gray and Mrs Gray, of Glasfryn, and was born and brought up in St Davids. He is a member of Tabernacle Methodist Church and plays an active part in many aspects of life in St Davids.

"I am proud to have received this honour on behalf of the lifeboat, but sad that my father died a few months before he could receive his award for his many years of council service, and my mother, who was also recommended for her services to teaching." He is married to Anona and they have two boys and two girls.

A FORMER Cardigan mayor, Trevor Griffiths, who practised as a dentist in Cardigan from 1974 to 1994, receives the OBE.

He lives in Llangoedmor with his wife Meifis and grown up son Elis.

As chairman of the law and constitution committee of the GDC, Mr Griffiths became closely involved with GDC policy in a 'very busy period of legislative change'.

o The MBE goes to foster carer Betty Eva James, of Meidrim, for services to children in Carmarthenshire.

RETIRED psychiatrist Dr John Cule, of Abereinon, Capel Dewi, a former High Sheriff of Dyfed, becomes a MBE for services to mental health.

He said: "I appreciate this honour very much. I am aware of the great contribution made to the care of the mentally ill by the integrity and competence of the current small core of approved psychiatric social workers in the old county of Dyfed in our seeking to provide balanced psychiatric and social mental health assessments for the support and treatment of patients referred under the Mental Health Act 1983."

He served in World War Two in the Medical Corps with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was mentioned in despatches during service in Italy from 1943-46.

He was chairman of the Welsh branch of the British Driving Society from 1986 to 1994 and is currently chairman of the Sanders Watney Trust (Driving for the Disabled). Dr Cule was a finalist in the National Carriage Driving Championships between 1981 and 1988.