The woman behind a boat service empire in the Docklands has been given a gong in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Rita Beckwith, 60, chief executive and co-owner of City Cruises, who build up the company from scratch, with husband Gary, in the 1980s has been awarded a CBE for her services to the Leisure and Tourism Industry, and the Regeneration of London’s Docklands.
It a real rags to riches story as Mrs Beckwith began helping Gary buy up vessels for the company. A year ago Mrs Beckwith told our newspaper how she got involved to help Gary, who is dyslexic, with the paperwork, when he wanted to carry on the Thames (Fuel Barge Freddy), a business he started with his father.
Today the company employs about 150 people and ferries around two million tourists a year up and down the Thames.
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