Rugby hero Jonny Wilkinson and boxer Carl Froch to collect honours

Updated
Jonny Wilkinson and Carl Froch Honoured at Buckingham Palace
Jonny Wilkinson and Carl Froch Honoured at Buckingham Palace

A year after stepping in to retirement, England's 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning hero Jonny Wilkinson is stepping up to collect his CBE.

Wilkinson, 36, who scored a high-pressure match-winning drop-goal in the 2003 final, brought the curtain down on a glittering career in 2014 by masterminding Toulon's second-straight Heineken Cup win. His award is for services to Rugby Union.

Boxer Carl Froch is another champion in the line-up of famous faces from the worlds of sports, arts and entertainment, who are to receive their awards from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace.

Froch, 38, who has announced his retirement from boxing, collects his MBE for services to boxing. He won four super-middleweight world titles and earned a reputation to rank alongside the all-time great global 12-stone champions.

Froch had hoped to end his career in Las Vegas but injury put paid to a projected fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and he has not fought since his Wembley win over George Groves more than a year ago.

Williams Formula 1 team co-founder Patrick Head and the founding editor of The Independent newspaper Andreas Whittam Smith both receive knighthoods.

Sir Patrick, 69, whose knighthood is for services to motorsport, has been hailed a "design genius" by team founder Sir Frank Williams.

Sir Patrick's engineering talent has helped play "a key role in establishing Great Britain as a leading force in global motorsport and the benefits of this are still being felt to this day," according to Sir Frank.

The honour for Sir Andreas, 78, is for public service, particularly to the Church of England.

Sir Andreas was a financial journalist until 1985 when he led the team that founded The Independent newspaper. He was the paper's first editor.

He went on to become the president of the British Board of Film Classification and chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

He is currently First Church Estates Commissioner, responsible for £5 billion of the Church's investments, and chairman of the Children's Mutual.

Actress Lesley Manville, 59, who is collecting an OBE for services to drama, has had a successful career both on stage and screen.

Ms Manville, who won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2014, is a favourite of film director Mike Leigh.

She has starred in 11 of his projects, including All Or Nothing and Another Year, which earned her a Bafta nomination.

She cut her teeth in the world of television with a presenting job and a stint on Emmerdale. Since then her TV repertoire is as long as the honours list, boasting credits for shows such as Coronation Street, Silent Witness and Other People's Children.

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