BROMSGROVE historian and author Jennie McGregor-Smith received her British Empire Medal at Worcester’s Guildhall last Thursday.
The 79-year-old received the accolade in HM The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to the community in Bromsgrove.
On the day she was presented with her medal by the Lord Lieutenant and told The Standard it was a moment she would never forget.
“It was a lovely occasion, and it was particularly good to be able to invite friends, most of whom I have worked with for Bromsgrove arts events.”
She was the co-founder of The Bromsgrove Society, literary organisation WORDS, Bromsgrove Junior Concert Club and Bromsgrove Arts Association (now Bromsgrove Arts Alive).
Jennie was also joint-secretary of Bromsgrove Concerts between 1976 and 1989 and chairman of the organisation between 1998 and 2009 and was a prime mover in starting the Bromsgrove Junior Concert Club in 1995.
She has also been a member of the Housman Society which she has supported for the past 30 years.
She was one of four people who planned the 1996 celebrations of the poet which climaxed in a memorial to Housman in Poet’s Corner.
In her role in the Bromsgrove Arts Association she led the campaign for almost 20 years for an arts centre to be built in the town.
In 2005 Artrix was built and since then has become an icon for what a local arts centre should be.
She was also the sole organiser of Celebrating English Song – a series of Sunday afternoon recitals that ran for 13 years and made a real contribution to the revival of interest in the genre – and chaired the West Midlands Music Societies for more than 20 years.
Her other achievements include being a caseworker for Bromsgrove in the Victorian Society and she has written several history books, including texts on Bromsgrove architect John Cotton, Greenhill in Blackwell and Bromsgrove to Aston Fields – a story of Victorian Expansion.
She is now working on a book about Finstall.
