Alan Bates was awarded a knighthood in the King’s Birthday Honours on Friday after his landmark campaign for justice for hundreds of wrongly convicted postmasters.
The former subpostmaster was honoured alongside former prime minister Gordon Brown, artist Tracey Emin and actress Imelda Staunton, and hundreds of community heroes.
The list celebrated charity fundraisers and activists alongside celebrities and sports stars, including knighthoods for cyclist Mark Cavendish and Mail writer Niall Ferguson, and a damehood for fashion designer Anya Hindmarch.
The highest award went to Mr Brown, who said he was ‘slightly embarrassed’ to be made a Companion of Honour and would prefer to recognise ‘unsung, local heroes’.
Perhaps the most popular award was the knighthood for Mr Bates, whose legal battle against the Post Office was dramatised by ITV earlier this year.
Sir Alan, who had previously rejected an OBE while Post Office boss Paula Vennells still retained a CBE, said he was ‘honoured’ by the knighthood.
He actually learned about it while Ms Vennells gave evidence to the public inquiry into the scandal, in which hundreds of postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud while the Post Office covered up problems with the real culprit – its new IT system.
She has been formally stripped of her CBE following the Horizon IT scandal, which has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
Sir Alan insisted his knighthood for services to justice was on behalf of the hundreds of subpostmasters affected by the scandal and the ‘horrendous things that have happened’.
He laughed off claims he was a hero, but said he had received hundreds of messages of support, adding: ‘A lot of people do seem to think I should receive some sort of recognition for the work that I’ve done for them or on their behalf.’
In the sporting world, cyclist Mr Cavendish was given a knighthood and there were CBEs for fellow athlete Chris Boardman and former Liverpool footballer and Mail columnist Graeme Souness.
Dame Jenny Abramsky, the first female editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, was appointed a Dame Grand Cross and retired High Court judge Lord Etherton was appointed a Knight Grand Cross.
There were also damehoods for London Stock Exchange CEO Julia Hoggett, honour killings campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera and knighthoods for cancer drug researcher Professor Tony Kouzarides and HSBC chairman Mark Tucker.
Political satirist Armando Iannucci, actor Alex Jennings, novelist Monica Ali and broadcaster Alan Yentob each received CBEs.
Broadcaster Tania Bryer, BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones, poet and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera were given OBEs.
And there were MBEs for Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, Countdown lexicographer Susie Dent, Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, Boney M singer Liz Mitchell, Strictly stars Amy Dowden and Rose Ayling Ellis, and M People singer Heather Small.
Hundreds of volunteers and community heroes were honoured for their ‘outstanding work’, including forces veteran double amputee who climbed Everest and three fathers who raised more than £1.4million for charity after losing their daughters to suicide.
Gurkha ex-soldier Hari Budha Magar became the first double above-the-knee amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest last year, 13 years after an explosion while serving in Afghanistan.
While Andy Airey, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen started Three Dads Walking in memory of their daughters – Sophie, 29, 17-year-old Beth and Emily, 19.
Charity fundraiser Harold Jones, 100, was the oldest recipient and there were eight awards for volunteers with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as it celebrates its 200th anniversary.
Veterans’ charities were also honoured, including a CBE for the former director general of Royal British Legion, Charles Byrne.
Patrick and Karen McCourt, who have fostered 331 children, were awarded British Empire Medals.
He rose from humble subpostmaster to modern-day folk hero after his David and Goliath stand against the injustice of the Post Office IT scandal.
And now, Alan Bates is also a knight of the realm.
The driving force in the decades-long campaign to have colleagues’ names cleared and win compensation, his status was further enhanced this year when depicted by Toby Jones in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was watched by millions.
Born in Liverpool, Sir Alan studied graphic design in Wrexham before moving around the country working project management jobs in museums and visitor centres.
The keen Morris dancer met his partner Suzanne Sercombe, 68, in 1990 at an Appalachian clog-dancing event.
The couple were living in Yorkshire when they made the fateful decision to buy a post office and haberdashery in Llandudno, Wales, in 1998.
The Horizon IT system was installed in October 2000 and within two months financial discrepancies were showing up.
Sir Alan insisted they were not his fault and refused to pay the shortfall. His contract was terminated in November 2003 and, while he was not prosecuted, he lost the £65,000 he had invested in the business.
The first sign of his transformation to feted campaigner began in October 2003, when he wrote to his local newspaper saying he would never give up his fight against the Post Office.
In 2009, Computer Weekly broke the story of the Post Office scandal, featuring Sir Alan and six other victims, and he founded the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance.
Just 20 people turned up to the group’s first meeting, but it soon mushroomed into a high-profile campaign that ultimately led to group litigation against the shamed Post Office, and the ongoing public inquiry.
Sir Alan, who cashed in his pension early to fund the campaign, lives in a modest semi-detached house in Colwyn Bay with his wife and their black cat, Missy.
By Andrew Levy