Witney professor and RAF man listed among the Queen’s birthday honours (From The Oxford Times)

Witney professor and RAF man listed among the Queen’s birthday honours

1:45pm Monday 14th June 2010 in

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A WITNEY professor and the founder of Beer for the Boys — a charity which aims to give an alcoholic beverage to every returning soldier — have been listed among the Queen’s birthday honours.

Professor David Macdonald has been made a Commander of the British Empire thanks to his efforts in protecting wildlife.

Prof Macdonald, of Standlake, was named in the Queen’s birthday honours for his contributions to wildlife and conservation.

The professor works in Oxford University’s department of zoology.

He said about being made a CBE: “I think it’s a wonderful honour and feel that the honour is in two parts.

“One part is to draw attention to the importance of the subject of wildlife conservation, and the other is to give recognition to the wonderful team of people that I have built up and with whom I work.”

In 1986, Prof Macdonald established the first conservation research unit — called Wild Cru — at the university.

The married father-of-three said: “To tell you the truth, while I suppose I wouldn’t have thought that I would get such an honour, or even become a professor at Oxford University, I did always think that the vision I had for the way of tackling wildlife problems was a helpful vision. I suppose you could say I always had confidence in the vision and the mission and in the importance of the issues, but of course I did not know that I would be recognised for that.”

In a 2007 poll, he was named in the top ten most influential living conservationsists by BBC Wildlife magazine. He finished ninth in the feature — one place behind veteran botanist David Bellamy.

Prof Macdonald, who has lived in the Witney area for 20 years and studied zoology at Oxford University, was first noticed in the world of wildlife conservation in the early 70s, when he was the first to track foxes using radios.

Known locally as the fox man, the professor went on to make Bafta-winning documentary The Night of the Fox, which used then-breakthrough technology of night vision to track the creatures.

This led to him penning the book Running with the Fox.

In the 1980s, Prof Macdonald made the film Meerkats United, which followed mongooses in the desert, and has been watched by 500m people.

Prof Macdonald’s specialist unit Wild Cru has a team of 60 people, who study endangered animals across the globe.

He has also created a training programme, based in Tubney, for people from developing countries to learn about conservation.

Internationally, Prof Macdonald is the chairman of the Darwin Initiative — the committee that decides how Britain’s money is distributed into conservation projects.

He is also chairman of Natural England’s science advisory committee.

l Wing Commander Steve Chadwick, who is currently away on a six-month tour, has been awarded an OBE.

He has been recognised for his outstanding leadership and professional effectiveness while employed as officer commanding 216 Squadron at the base.

The squadron was responsible for flying passengers across the defence airbridge to Afghanistan and to the Middle East, as well as providing the UK’s air-to-air refuelling contribution to support Operation HERRICK.

The wing commander was also praised for single-handedly raising thousands of pounds for charity.

Beer for the Boys was the brainchild of Wing Commander Chadwick. He started the campaign in 2007, with the aim of giving a free can of beer to every serviceman and woman flying home from Afghanistan on RAF TriStar aircraft, which are operated by 216 Squadron.

Alcohol is not available to British troops while serving in the Middle East.

Sergeant Adrian Coomber, who is part of the base’s transformation team and also Carterton’s deputy mayor, said: “Beer for the Boys was a great idea of Wing Commander Chadwick’s.

“It’s brilliant. I cannot imagine a more fitting way to thank our brave soldiers and airmen than to serve them a cold beer on the flight home to their families.”

According to the squadron’s website 216squadron.com, 46,000 beers have been delivered to returning soldiers.

On the website, Wing Commander Chadwick said: “I felt it would be a nice thing to do after the guys had done their time in theatre, on behalf of a grateful nation and the RAF.

“The principle is that a single can of cold beer thrust into the hand of a soldier once the TriStar is safely away from the ground and out of harm’s way marks the point at which he knows he is going home after six months of fighting. It is just a token, but an important one.”