The founding president of the Society of Editors, Geoff Elliott, has been made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

He won his gong for services to journalism and served as editor on the Kent Messenger, the Coventry Evening Telegraph and the Portsmouth News.

Until he retired last year, Geoff, (right), was for three years head of journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

Geoff, (59), said: “I always found journalism to be a wonderful job.

“There was never a day when you would go to work and know exactly what was going to happen.”

Now living at Shute, near Axminster in Devon, during his career he also gained an insight into the way in which the newspaper industry regulates itself as a member of the Press Council, the Editors’ Code Committee, the Press Complaints Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.

The former chairman and managing director of Cambridge Newspapers, Ian Richard, has been awarded the OBE for his services to the industry.

He led the company for more than 16 years before retiring last year and has spent his working life in the newspaper industry, previously holding top jobs at Edinburgh, Blackburn, Cardiff, Reading and Birmingham, before moving to Cambridge.

He arrived at the News at the time of the paper’s centenary in 1988 and one of his first tasks was to supervise a move from the Newmarket Road premises to the present site at Milton.

In addition to his work at the Evening News, Ian has been a leading light in the business community and has played a big role in the education sector too, as a member of the council of Anglia Polytechnic University and being on the board at Cambridge Regional College.

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