Former CPS head and animal welfare figure receive honours from Princess Royal

Dame Alison Saunders, ex-CPS head, is now a Dame Commander and Claire Horton, former chief executive of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, a CBE.
Alison Saunders is made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath by the Princess Royal (PA)
PA Media
Tony Jones4 August 2021

Former director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders has been made a Dame Commander, a move that sparked criticism when first announced.

The Princess Royal hosted the investiture ceremony where the ex-head of the Crown Prosecution Service was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath for services to criminal justice.

Dame Alison declined to talk to the press after the ceremony staged at St James’s Palace.

The damehood was labelled a “reward for failure” when announced in the 2019 New Year Honours but at the time Dame Alison defended her honour in an interview with The Times newspaper, saying it was for “30 years of public service”.

Dame Alison Saunders (Andrew Matthews/PA)
PA Archive

She quit her post in 2018 after a series of controversies including the collapse of a series of rape trials due to the late disclosure of evidence, leading to a review of every rape case in the country.

Despite usual practice, Dame Alison did not receive an honour after stepping down, and it was believed to have been withheld after then prime minister Theresa May demanded an end to automatic honours for civil servants accused of failing in their roles.

Also recognised during the ceremony was Claire Horton former chief executive of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home who was made a CBE for services to animal welfare.

Claire Horton after being made a CBE (Yui Mok/PA)
PA Wire

She spent more than 10 years at the leading charity before leaving to take up the role of director general with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Mrs Horton said about being chief executive of the animal welfare organisation: “Even though the role is challenging it brings with it such rewards because you’re making a life and death difference to animals – cats and dogs.”

She said about the CBE: “I’m very proud, and I will be really clear, it’s me that’s received this today but ultimately it’s testament to the work of an awful lot of people over many years in Battersea and our colleagues in the sector.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in