Volunteers to be presented with Queen’s Award
Volunteers from the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) will today receive the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service during a special ceremony.
As part of the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation earlier this year, the SVR’s volunteers were selected by The Queen to receive the esteemed award.
As an impressive reminder of the Queen’s Award, the Railway will be presented with a commemorative piece of crystal and a certificate signed by The Queen by the Lord Lieutenants for Worcestershire and Shropshire during a ceremony at Kidderminster Town station.
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Holcroft LVO OBE, Lord-Lieutenant for Worcestershire, and Mr Algernon Heber-Percy, Lord-Lieutenant for Shropshire will attend the ceremony alongside the SVR’s Chairman, Nick Paul, Mike Ball, Vice Chairman of SVR Holdings PLC, David Williams, Chairman of SVR Co. Ltd, Alan Longdon, Deputy Chairman of SVR Co. Ltd,, John Leftwich, Chair of Development Board (SVR Charitable Trust), Hugh McQuade, Chairman of SVR Charitable Trust and Alan Davis, Chairman of Severn Valley Railway Association (SVRA).
During the ceremony, there will be speeches from Nick Paul and both Lord-Lieutenants before the award and certificate is presented to Alan Longdon on behalf of all volunteers. Guests will then enjoy Afternoon Tea in the Valley Suite.
Nick Ralls, SVR’s general manager, said: “We are delighted that the efforts of our volunteers have been rewarded in such a special and prestigious way, and it will be wonderful to have a permanent reminder of their achievement on display at the Railway.
“The passion, commitment and enthusiasm of our volunteers is really what makes the Severn Valley Railway the huge success that it is today. We are a very largely volunteer-run organisation, and to put it bluntly, without the dedication of our volunteers, we could not continue to operate.”
