BOLTON'S curry king, a supergran with a heart of gold, and a veteran trade union stalwart make it a triple triumph for the town in the Queen's birthday honours list.

Kirit Pathak has been awarded an OBE for his services to the food industry and to exports.

He has been running Wigan-based Pataks Indian Foods since 1976 when he took over from his father who started the business in Bolton in the 50s.

Most of the company's later growth was overseen by Kirit, of Heaton, who is chairman and chief executive. And much of the credit for the creative recipes which helped transform the company is given to Kirit's wife Meena.

With sales to nearly 50 countries last year and leading the market in the US, Mr Pathak was recently named as one of North's richest men, said to be worth £30 million.

Under his stewardship the company rapidly became too big for its Bolton premises and by the 1990s and employs 125 staff in Ashton-in-Makerfield. BOLTON supergran Lilian Kearns receives an MBE.

Lilian, aged 75, who has lived in Johnson Fold for more than 40 years, is a tireless campaigner for her community.

The energetic great grandmother, of Lightbounds Road, ran a weekly youth club on the troubled estate. It was rewarded with a £200 grant from the health authority to publicise the dangers of drugs and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

She also spearheaded a campaign to raise £30,000 for a play area at Johnson Fold Primary School and raise £23,000 to re-cover an all weather football pitch, first installed several years ago when Lilian raised more than £80,000.

VETERAN trade unionist Frank Hilton also gets the MBE.

The Engineers' Union works convenor at British Aerospace, Lostock has been chief spokesperson for the unions there for many years.

His MBE is in recognition of his services to the defence industry at BAe's Dynamics Division.

Mr Hilton, who lives in Wigan, has been at the forefront of almost every major development at the plant and a leading campaigner to protect jobs. He has a reputation as a strong negotiator and is a prominent member of the works social committee. TWENTY-EIGHT years in the freight industry has earned Mr Willaim Hanley, of Greenmount, Bury an MBE.

Now Deputy Manager of TNT UK LTD, Mr Hanley set up Inter County Express in Little Lever with associate Mr Al Smith in 1969. In 1978 the company was sold to TNT and Mr Hanley stayed on.

MELVIN Magnall's MBE coincides with his retirement as chairman of the Ocean Youth Club's Bury branch after 14 years.

Melvin, of Millhouse Street, Shuttleworth, set up the country's first branch of the sailing charity in Bury in the 1980s. He has devoted much of his time to giving people the chance to experience life at sea.

He says he's moving over to allow for "young blood and new ideas" . THREE Dunblane teachers, including Gwen Mayor, who died in the massacre, receive the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Birthday Honours.

The Commendation goes to Mrs Mayor and to Mrs Mary Blake and Mrs Eileen Harrild who were wounded.

Murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for saving a pupil from a gang attack outside his school, in Maida Vale, west London.

And Lisa Potts, the nursery nurse wounded by a deranged knifeman as she tried to protect children in a Wolverhampton school playground, has been awarded the George Medal.

Among other honours, veteran actor Donald Sinden, receives a knighthood today.

Bury-born funny woman Victoria Wood, 44, was made an OBE and England cricket skipper Mike Atherton, whose proud dad Alan is head of Farnworth's Harper Green School, is awarded the OBE.

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