THE great and the good of Hampshire were today celebrating after receiving awards in the New Year's Honours List.

Alongside the internationally renowned sports personalities and entertainers were ordinary workers and civil servants.

Come rain or shine, Ginny Coburn has been helping schoolchildren across the road for the past 35 years.

She took on a part-time job as the lollipop woman at Breamore Primary School near Fordingbridge and has never looked back.

Now her efforts have been recognised by being made an MBE for services to education.

Grandmother-of-two Margaret, 70, of Station Farm Cottages, Breamore, said: "It's a great honour. I enjoy being a lollipop lady very much. I like seeing all the small children and they grow up and go to big school then another lot comes along.

"I've always been connected with the school. I went to school there myself."

Best-selling author Leslie Thomas, who lives in Lymington, has been awarded the OBE for services to literature.

Mr Thomas, 73, has written 30 titles including The Virgin Soldiers and has notched up international sales figures of more then 14 million.

He told the Daily Echo: "I am thrilled. For a working-class boy it's a great thing, I was in a Barnardo's orphanage when I was a kid. Everyone around here knows me and it's been a job keeping it quiet!"

Mr Thomas, originally from South Wales, moved to Hampshire more than 30 years ago with his second wife Diana. He has four children.

Ken Pink has been made an MBE for nearly four decades of service to Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS).

Ken, 52, who lives with his wife, Joan, at St Michael's Grove, Fareham, has dedicated 38 years to the crucial service based at Stokes Bay in Gosport.

The senior coxswain was thrilled with the honour that commends his service to the Hampshire community.

He said: "It was quite unexpected and I hope it reflects on the whole of GAFIRS as well as myself. I have been there for 38 years,six months after it started off and I am still enjoying it."

Brigadier Sean O'Meara has been made an MBE for services to accident prevention.

He is chairman of the finance and management committee of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

Brig O'Meara, of Twyford Road, Eastleigh, said he was proud to receive the honour.

He said: "I'm really pleased because it's nice to get recognition for doing good in the community."

Brig O'Meara, 65, has been married to his second wife Patricia for eight years and has four children from his first marriage.

A philanthropic Alresford man who gave £250,000 to fund a laboratory at Southampton General Hospital has been awarded the OBE for services to medical research and the community.

Venture capitalist Roger Brooke, 74, of Swarraton, has made many donations to medical research and other worthy causes in the Hampshire area.

A leading figure in the world of New Forest tourism has been honoured with an OBE for services to local government.

Anthony Climpson, 52, tourism and publicity officer for New Forest District Council, appeared on the honours list for his unstinting efforts over the last 17 years.

The father-of-two, who lives in Bournemouth, said: "From a personal point of view I'm very excited and very honoured but from a collective point of view I'm just the lucky guy who's received it."

Keith Crockford, of Barn-brook Road, Sarisbury Green, received an OBE for service to the defence industry.

Mr Crockford, 57, who works for ship repair company Fleet Support Limited, was responsible for co-ordinating the refit of HMS Nottingham, the des-troyer which ran aground off the coast of Australia in 2002.

Hampshire County Council's head of student support Judith Archer has been awarded an MBE for her services to higher education.

The 57-year-old, who lives in Southampton, is responsible for making sure 21,000 Hamp-shire students get the correct grants and loans every year and helped oversee the introduction of a new IT system after Hampshire was one of six local authorities chosen to pilot the project.

"I will be getting this medal but really it's for my team. They have been absolutely brilliant.

Father-of-three Tony Hey, 58, professor of computation at Southampton University, was awarded a CBE for services to science.

Janet Chiercher, of Tangier Lane, Bishop's Waltham, has been made an MBE for her services to young people with special needs and to the Southampton community.

An Isle of Wight man who has dedicated his life to helping Second World War veterans who served in the Far East has been made an MBE.

Hedley Vinall, 82, of Shank-lin, vice-president of the Burma Star Association began working for the group in 1962 and has been a member of its national council for 33 years.

John Macdougall Danning, of Ringwood, has been made an MBE for services to the defence industry. He is director of flight operations for FR Aviation, based at Bournemouth International Airport.

Dr Winston Reginald Withey, of Gosport, technical director at the Centre for Human Sciences, Qinetiq, has been given an OBE for services to the armed forces.