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New Year Honours for Esther Rantzen, Joan Collins and Lord Young

December 30, 2014 22:40
That's Life's Dame Esther

BySandy Rashty, Sandy Rashty

3 min read

A Hollywood actress, a television personality, a rabbi and at least two jewellers were among the 1,164 people who were recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list, which was released this week.

TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who has described her Jewishness as a “central part of my identity”, was made a Dame.

She was recognised for founding confidential 24-hour support groups ChildLine, for abused children, and Silver Line, for lonely pensioners. She set up the latter afterstruggling to come to terms with the death of her husband, BBC executive Desmond Wilcox, who she married in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue after he converted to Judaism.

She said she was delighted at the honour. “I’m absolutely thrilled because what it does is recognise the importance of ChildLine and SilverLine in transforming the lives of isolated young and old people,” she said.