Sue Freestone, the former principal of King’s Ely, has been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Mrs Freestone retired at the end of August, 2019, after 15 years at the helm.

A “great role model” was how she was summed up by Julie Spence, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, who appointed Mrs Freestone a deputy lieutenant in 2019.

Since March of last year, she has been director of education for The Kalisher Trust which supports training to broaden the range of those looking for a career in the law.

Mrs Freestone is fondly recalled on her arrival at King’s from Sibford School, Oxford, by reversing the decision to drop rugby.

During her time there she oversaw a rise of a third in pupil numbers and was described by the chair of governors has a “transformative principal”.

Honoured by the Queen for services to education, she described the “greatest joy” of leading King’s was to be responsible for “the whole school which means that I see our young people grow and develop”.