TWO prominent Cumbrian men have been awarded gongs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Businessman Peter Hensman and the author Hunter Davies are both made members of the Order of the British Empire.

Mr Hensman, who is executive director of Lake District Estates, which owns Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway and Ullswater Steamers, receives his OBE for service’s to Cumbria’s rural economy.

He was finance director and then managing director of Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon, the Kendal engineers, between 1980 and 2000 and was on the board of the Northwest Development Agency for seven years until 2012.

He is chairman of Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, Kendal Futures Board and the Lake District National Park Authority’s Business Task Force. He is also a non-executive director of Furness Building Society.

Mr Davies, who founded the Cumbria Book of the Year Awards, is honoured for services to literature.

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Describing himself as ‘a hack that got lucky’, the 78-year-old Scottish-born writer, who grew up in Carlisle, said he was ‘honoured’ by the award.

He wrote the only authorised biography of the Beatles in 1968 and went on to write more than 70 other books, including novels and travel books.

Other people in Cumbria to receive the OBE are Lake District ranger Peter Barron, for services to the national park and mountain rescue; Thomas Wood, chairman of Upper Eden Community Plan, for services to community planning; and Cockermouth’s Catherine Parry, general manager of Kirkgate Arts for services to the local community.