QUEEN’S HONOURS: Aldgate housing boss ‘with passion for people’ gets BEM along with ex-Tower Hamlets mayor
Matthew Ring from Algate's Middlesex Street housing estate in Petticoat Lane gets the BEM. Picture source: Aldgate Community Events (inset) and Google - Credit: ACE/Google
A housing estate manager in Aldgate with passion for bringing people together has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, announced this-evening.
Matthew Ring, the 28-year-old City Corporation official on the Middlesex Street estate, is one of three people in the East End receiving the BEM tonight who include a former Tower Hamlets Muslim civic mayor and a Jewish community leader.
Matthew is treasurer of the Aldgate Community Events organisation that runs heritage activities and arts and cultural performances.
“His passion has changed people’s lives by giving them the chance to get to know each other and taking part in something worthwhile,” his citation reads.
“Where neighbours once barely spoke, they are now friends and feel part of a community.
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“He is only 28, but the way he has overcome his personal obstacles has been inspiring to people who have come into contact with him.”
Matthew has also organised a Poppy fundraiser and a VE Day celebration on the estate at the heart of London’s famous Petticoat Lane market. and has mentored a young disabled woman to develop her confidence.
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A BEM has been awarded to 72-year-old Abdul Sardar who was a Tower Hamlets councillor for five years for Bromley-by-Bow who was elected civic mayor in 2003.
His aim was improving relations between the public and Met Police and also set up the Council of Mosques in 2001 to strengthen the relationship between the local authority and the mosques.
Abdul, who has been a Marner Primary School governor in Bromley-by-Bow since the 1990s and was vice-chair in 2014, established the Thesis Trust UK linking the East End with Bangladesh which raised £80,000 for a women’s hostel in Sylhet that provides education.
He has also been a director of East London Mosque Trust, a director of Bromley-by-Bow Centre and three terms a director of Poplar Housing & Regeneration Community Association.
The third BEM has gone to lecturer Jill Todd, a director of New Crane Wharf Freehold on the Wapping waterfront where she lives, for services to the community.
The 71-year-old chair of West London synagogue, who established a ‘dropout’ centre for refugees, is director of Women of the Year voluntary organisation that recognises women’s achievements around the world from all walks of life.
She has also raised funds for the Caldecott Foundation to open a £750,000 vocational learning centre teaching vulnerable youngsters skills in construction, hair and beauty, car mechanics and horticulture to move into jobs and independence.
