Husband-and-wife duo who have been key to Boys' Brigade since 1960s stunned by New Year honour

Raye Elizabeth Greenaway and her husband Derek Richard Greenaway have both been given British Empire Medals “for services to young people in Northern Ireland through The Boys' Brigade”.

Mr Greenaway, now aged 87, helped to found the Portadown Battalion of the BB in 1966, aided shortly afterwards by his wife.

Initially about 30 to 40 boys were involved.

Today, there are 19 companies in the battalion, numbering hundreds of boys in total.

Speaking to the News Letter in the wake of the honours list being made public, he said that it had been a shock to receive the letter from the Cabinet Office in Westminster, inviting them to accept or reject the award.

Needless to say, they chose the former.

“This is something we never thought about,” he said, adding the award is for the whole BB outfit, “not just ourselves”.

A member of the Orange Order and the Royal Black Preceptory, the Church of Ireland stalwart said that his long involvement is driven by a desire to impart his faith and values to the young.

When he started back in 1966, there were no mobile phones, and media was a pale black-and-white precursor of today’s 24/7 online culture.

“At the present time, boys are being bombarded right, left, and centre with things that take them away from the Christian ethos,” he said.

Nowadays, he said, he is seeing the grandchildren of boys he first encountered in the 1960s enlisting in the BB.

He went on to add: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be recognised in this way, but I’m very happy to accept it – so is my wife.”

The Boys' Brigade headquarters issued a statement saying: “So delighted for Derek and Raye Greenaway from 1st Milltown.”

Also being recognised in the honours with a British Empire Medal is Ms Helena Mary White, county president, of Girlguiding North Down.

Her accolade is “for services to young people in Northern Ireland”.

The BEM was reintroduced in 2012 by then-prime minister David Cameron, to sit alongside knighthoods, CBEs, OBEs and MBEs.

It was billed as part of his bid to make the honours system “classless”, saying too few people making a difference in their areas were made MBEs.

The medal went to 305 people in the New Year Honours, UK-wide this year, 33 of them from NI.

At the top end of the spectrum, there were eight knighthoods/damehoods handed down across the UK in this year’s honours.

The knighthoods were awarded to Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire), Queen guitarist Brian May, transvestite artist Grayson Perry, and MPs Chris Bryant and Julian Lewis.

The damehoods are for athlete Denise Lewis, actress and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna and North Tyneside’s elected mayor Norma Redfearn.

New Year Honours 2023: The full Northern Ireland list from BEMs to CBEs - all the names, all the citations

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