Alan Godfrey MBE 

Congratulations to Alan Godfrey, one of the founder members of the Society, who was awarded an MBE in the 2010 New Year Honours list. 

According to the Northern Echo of 7 January 2010: Alan Godfrey, a successful publisher of old maps, was made an MBE in last week's Queen's awards. Mr Godfrey, a lifelong lover of maps, made it his profession in 1981, when he began publishing old Ordnance Survey maps, no longer covered by copyright. The Tyneside-born former actor and school peripatetic music and drama teacher, has now researched and produced 2,300 maps, covering the UK, and begins preparation of his first German pre-war maps, next week. He said more than 50 per cent of his business is down to the family history boom, with London's East End and parts of Liverpool the most popular. Mr Godfrey, 66, of Holmside, near Sacriston, County Durham, moved the business to Leadgate in 2000. 

Dr Christopher Board OBE

 The appointment of Dr Christopher Board as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to Cartography, was announced in the 2005 New Year Honours list. 

The mark of a man’s merit can surely be measured in the pleasure which his achievements and awards give to others. Our Chairman’s recent accolades of the British Cartographic Society Medal (awarded in September 2004) and the Order of the British Empire (bestowed in January this year) are cause for celebration in this Society, of which he was a founder member nearly twenty-five years ago, and to which he has dedicated himself as Chairman for nearly ten years. We owe him much, but his part in this Society’s success is only a fraction of the contributions he has made to a wide range of cartographic activities in the last forty years, all of which have earned him his OBE. 

Chris is widely known and respected at both national and international levels. He played an influential role as a member (from 1972) and then Chairman (from 1984) of the Royal Society sub-committee, and served as President of the UK Society of Cartographers (1985-1990), following this with the Presidency of the British Cartographic Society from 1990-1994. At the same time, Chris was involved at a high level in the activities of the International Cartographic Society, chairing its Commission on the History of Cartography.

 His great enjoyment of his personal interests: maps, stamps and South Africa (not necessarily in that order) is very infectious, and is the keystone of his success as a cartographic communicator at many levels. We are privileged to have you as our Chairman, Chris, and we send you our warmest congratulations on your well-deserved honour.