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Extraordinary people honoured

Anyone can be nominated for an honour but only exceptional people receive one. People from across the United Kingdom receive honours in recognition of outstanding achievement and service to society.

This year almost three quarters of awards are for people who are actively engaged in charitable or voluntary work within their local community.

This year’s list reflects the contributions of a wide range of people, including a gymnastics coach, a college caretaker, a stationmaster, a comic book writer and an expert in fungal genetics.

A total of 1,201 people have been recommended to the Queen for an award. 498 are women and 6 per cent come from ethnic minority communities.

Follow the link below for more details of those honoured.

• Queen's Birthday Honours list 2012 - full details

Download the full Honours Lists

Get the full list of names of people honoured by downloading the lists below.

• Download the diplomatic service, overseas, military, police and fire lists (PDF, 232K)

• Help with PDF files

Famous people honoured

Some well-known people have received honours this year including:

• actor Kenneth Branagh receives a knighthood, Kate Winslet a CBE and Jenny Agutter an OBE
• architect Zaha Hadid receives a DBE, opera director David McVicar is knighted, and comic writer Grant Morrison gets an MBE
• there were MBEs for world number one ranked golfer Luke Donald, Welsh rugby union player Shane Williams and former England goalkeeper David James
• satirist Armando Iannucci gets an OBE, and there are CBEs for journalist Peter Riddell and cookery writer Mary Berry
• there were OBEs for singer-songwriter Gary Barlow who organised the Queen's Jubilee Concert, and Sarah Burton, designer of Kate Middleton's wedding dress
  

The honours system – what it is and how it works

Honours lists are published twice a year in mid-June at the time of the Queen’s official birthday and at New Year.

The lists contain people from a wide variety of backgrounds. If you want to find out how to nominate someone for an honour and how the honours system works, follow the links below.

• Nominating someone for an honour (government, citizens and rights section)

• The honours process explained (government, citizens and rights section)

Further information

• Honours, awards and medals (government, citizens and rights section)