Queen's New Year Honours list 2017

Queen’s Police Medal 

• Lesley Boal, Detective Chief Superintendent, Police Scotland 
• Kate Thomson, Assistant Chief Constable, Police Scotland 
• George Trayner, Police Constable, Police Scotland

Queen’s Fire Service Medal

• Ian Bell, Watch Manager, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Queen’s Ambulance Service Medal 

• John Alexander, Head of Service, Scottish Ambulance Service

QUEEN’S POLICE MEDAL

Lesley Boal  

Detective Chief Superintendent, Police Scotland

Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal has worked in many areas of policing and public safety since joining the service in 1987.

Throughout her impressive career Lesley has led police officers, staff and many partners, championing for the highest quality of standards in protecting children and vulnerable adults.

Lesley’s personal commitment and contribution to the Working Group to produce the National Guidance for Child Protection Committees for conducting significant case reviews are considered to be of the highest standard.

In the first two years of Police Scotland’s existence, she also made a significant contribution to the current standard operating procedures for child protection matters.

The National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, led by Lesley, launched in October 2014. It builds on best practice and offers improved services and investigative leadership in tackling child sexual exploitation, protecting children from harm and investigating offenders. This work has led to an overall reduction of threat and harm to the public, greater investigative focus on offenders and greater management and control of registered and non-registered sex offenders.

Kate Thomson

Assistant Chief Constable, Police Scotland

Assistant Chief Constable Kate Thomson retired from Police Scotland in 2016 having served as a warranted officer for 31 years. Her ability to bring people together has helped to shape policing in Scotland, particularly in her original force area of Dumfries and Galloway.

She was selected to serve with the traffic department before leading a team of detectives investigating crimes of violence and abuse against women and children.  Kate pioneered and developed inter-agency working and cross service collaboration with health and social services partners to ensure that victims were provided with a holistic service that would not only tackle perpetrators but also offer victim centred support.

Kate became the first woman to command one of the local policing divisions and the first to lead the Constabulary’s Criminal Investigation Department.

In 2015, she also took the lead in implementing Police Scotland’s commitment to promoting engagement with a focus on localism. She led a small team of officers in the introduction of the innovative ‘Your View Counts’ survey across Scotland.  Supporting face to face engagement across the country, the online public survey about local and national priorities is open all year round, and offers communities better opportunities to tell the police what is important to them on a continuing basis.  

George Trayner 

Police Constable, Police Scotland

Constable George Trayner joined Strathclyde Police in 1991 and will receive the Queen’s Police Medal in recognition of his long-term and outstanding work in the development and practice of the crucial role of Family Liaison Officer (FLO) within the Police Service.

George has dedicated himself to the challenging role. He is at the forefront of developing and improving Family Liaison within the Police Service, particularly for those bereaved by road traffic deaths.

Over the past 15 years George has specialised in his field and has overcome many hurdles in his drive to continue to make Family Liaison a success.

Constable Trayner also facilitates on the FLO training courses delivered at the Police Scotland College, Tulliallan, as part of the Crime Management Training Division.  In addition to national FLO courses, he also teaches on the National Road Policing Traffic Patrol Officers Course and the Road Policing Senior Investigators Course.

QUEEN’S FIRE SERVICE MEDAL 

Ian Bell 

Watch Manager, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Since joining the fire service in 1989, Ian Bell has served in a number of fire stations across Glasgow and the West of Scotland. He has risen through the ranks and held supervisory management positions and taken command of many significant operational incidents.

In addition to his day job, Ian has invested a huge amount of his personal time in two very worthy organisations - the SFRS Burns Club and SFRS Pipe Band.

The SFRS Burns Club aims to raise the profile of Scotland’s national poet by raising funds for a variety of charitable causes. In the years that Ian has operated as event organiser, the supper has raised in excess of £20,000 for charity.

Ian also dedicates time to the SFRS Pipe Band and has developed a youth band.  .  He has led the development of the band for a number of years and has invested a significant amount of his own personal time in ensuring that the youth band provides young, aspiring musicians with an opportunity to develop their musical talents in a safe and supportive environment.

QUEEN’S AMBULANCE SERVICE MEDAL

John Alexander 

Head of Service, Scottish Ambulance Service

John has served with the Ambulance Service for 31 years and shows exceptional devotion to duty. Throughout his career John has worked as a paramedic and Team Leader responding to 999 calls and providing cover for a large number of major events that have taken place in Edinburgh. Over the past 20 years he has been the principle lead Tactical and Strategic Operational Manager responsible for planning the ambulance, medical and first aid provision at many high profile events.

John has also filled the role of Ambulance Event Commander, planning and leading multi-agency, civil contingency, live play and table top exercises which has ensured that Edinburgh has an international reputation for holding safe, successful and enjoyable events. The annual events which are most notable are Royal Week, Royal Military Tattoo, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, and the Royal Highland Show. John also played a pivotal role during the Papal visit in 2010.