Rio Ferdinand given OBE and Damian Lewis CBE in Queen’s birthday honours list

Football commentator Rio Ferdinand and actor Damian Lewis are among well-known faces from the worlds of sport and the arts recognised in the platinum jubilee Queen’s birthday honours.

Lewis, 51, star of Band of Brothers, Homeland and Wolf Hall, receives a CBE for services to drama and charity. During the coronavirus lockdown he and his late wife, the actor Helen McCrory, co-founded Feed NHS, helping to raise more than £1m to give food from high street restaurants to NHS staff. The honour comes after McCrory, 52, a star of stage and screen including roles in Peaky Blinders and the Harry Potter films, died in April 2021 after suffering from cancer.

Lewis said on Wednesday night: “What a great honour to be awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to drama and for the charity work that I have carried out over the years and during the pandemic with my late wife, Helen McCrory. Thank you very much. She and I are both thrilled.”

Ex-Manchester United defender Ferdinand, who won 81 England caps and six Premier League titles, is awarded an OBE for his activism and charity work. The 43-year-old, whose first wife, Rebecca, died from breast cancer in 2015, is a high-profile activist who has won praise for his work on bereavement and for his foundation set up to help tackle inequality, racism and the stigma surrounding mental health.

Five-times Champions League winner and former Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, 32, is made an MBE. The Cardiff-born forward donated more than 1m euros to hospitals in Wales and Spain in April 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic, and has supported other charities in his home country.

Liverpool player James Milner is made an MBE in recognition of the foundation he set up to