Charles Pude MBE (6/1/5)A LIFE-TIME of service to the village of Porton has earned popular former parish council chairman Charles Pude an MBE in the New Year Honours List.

Mr Pude (71), who has lived in Winterslow Road, Porton, since 1965 and has served on dozens of community groups in addition to his work as a councillor, modestly said there were many others that deserved the honour rather than him.

But, Mr Pude said he was "really chuffed" about it and felt "very proud and honoured."

Mr Pude first joined Salisbury district council as a councillor for Porton in 1976 and served for eight years.

He spent many more years on the parish council and has been its chairman and vice-chairman on two occasions.

In addition to his years of local authority work, Mr Pude has also served on many village groups and organisations.

He is a former member of the Porton primary school parent teachers' association, a member of the Idmiston parish memorial hall committee, organiser of the Porton table tennis club, the Idmiston Parish Playing Fields Association and a governor of Gomeldon school.

Close to his heart is road safety among young people and he has been involved in road safety training for more than 30 years on the Amesbury Road Safety Group.

A married man with three children, Mr Pude was honoured by villagers in the spring of 2004 when he was presented with gifts by the parish council, which included a plaque which has been placed on a seat in the village playing field.

A retired shop manager formerly working for Lotus shoes and Milletts in Salisbury, Mr Pude is a grandfather of four.

in Salisbury, Mr Pude is a grandfather of four.

Distinguished botanical artist Suzanne Lucas of Mere receives the MBE in the New Year honours for services to the arts.

Mrs Lucas has been a gold medallist with the Royal Horticultural Society a record 13 times, was founder president in 1985 of the Society of Botanical Artists and has just retired as president of the 108-year-old Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers.

She was the first woman to become president of a royal society.

Her work was exhibited in Atlanta as part of the Cultural Olympiad, she has painted hundreds of pictures of toadstools and written and illustrated two books on the subject.

Mrs Lucas (89) said she was pleased with the honour, but would like to think it was also awarded for her intelligence work in Egypt during the 1940s and later during the Suez crisis.

Born in Calcutta, she came to England when she was six years old and was educated at Roedean and Edinburgh University, where she read arts.

In the 1930s she travelled with her mother all over Europe and the pair met Adolf Hitler in a Munich restaurant in 1935. It was at the time, she said, that people thought he was "a good thing for Germany" and he autographed a photograph of himself for the two women.

Mrs Lucas married her husband, the chief of navigation with the Suez Canal Company, in Egypt, where she became fascinated with Egyptology and Egyptian art and began to paint miniatures.

Her first exhibition of miniatures and flower paintings was in 1954, but it was not until 20 years later she came across a mauve toadstool in the garden and decided to paint it.

She never looked back and her book, In Praise of Toadstools, was published in 1992, a second volume following in 1997.

"I fell in love with toadstools," she explained.

"I have given up painting now, but I am hoping to write my autobiography."

Prince Charles visited her exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in June.

The exhibition marked her golden jubilee as a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers and her silver jubilee as president of it.

"Prince Charles gave a nice speech and was kind enough to quote from my writings," she said.