A man from Chippenham is set to receive an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Christopher James Laurence, who already has an MBE, is now set to become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

According to The Bella Moss Foundation he has also been awarded the Queen’s Volunteer Reserves Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2002.

His dedication to his work has shone through in Wiltshire over the years, and his OBE comes for services to Animal Welfare.

The Bella Moss Foundation says that Chris qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Bristol University in 1968 and went into mixed practice in Somerset.

A year later, then moved to Chippenham in Wiltshire to take up a purely small animal practice at the Hale Veterinary Group until 1998.

Chris then became Chief Veterinary Officer at the RSPCA and Veterinary Director of Dogs Trust and retired in August 2011.

He has become affiliated with many charities and organisations which work to improve animals’ quality of life and has received various forms of recognition for the difference he has made over the years.

He was awarded the MBE for services to animal welfare in 2007 and granted a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2017.

Chris is currently Chairman of the Canine and Feline Sector Group of the England Health and Welfare Board and Treasurer of the Central Veterinary Society.

He is also involved in several charities and is Chairman of the Animal Welfare Foundation and the British Veterinary Behaviour Association.

As well as this, he is a Trustee of the Pet Blood Bank, the Bella Moss Foundation, the North Wiltshire Branch of the RSPCA and Treasurer of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council.

Outside the profession, he is Chairman of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry Trust and the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars Association, a Director of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust Ltd and Treasurer of Tytherton Village Hall.

Chris had a lengthy career in the Royal Signals, Territorial Army, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 2002.

He has been married to his wife Sheila since 1969 and has two children and four grandchildren.