A FORMER deputy headteacher at Giggleswick School has been recognised by the Queen in the New Year's Honours List.

Brian Christian, whose home is in Clapham, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to education and the community in Tokyo.

Mr Christian, who was born in the Isle of Man, is a graduate of Cambridge University, where he read English Literature.

He has spent 40 years teaching in independent schools, first in the UK and then in Asia. He was deputy headteacher at Giggleswick for seven years before becoming Principal of Liverpool College and then moving overseas to lead international schools in Shanghai and Singapore.

For the last seven years, he has been principal of the British School in Tokyo and has served as a board member of the Council of British International Schools.

Married to Lynda, he has three sons, two step-daughters and three grandchildren.

He is due to retire in July at the end of the current academic year and is looking forward to returning to spend more time in Clapham, which has been home to him and Lynda since their days at Giggleswick.

"I am proud to accept this unexpected but very welcome honour as it offers recognition of the hard work of so many people who have helped to make the British School in Tokyo such a vibrant community hub in recent years. It has been a genuine team effort and I have simply been privileged to play a part in that team," he said.

A former colleague, former headmaster at Giggleswick School, Anthony Millard, said in a tweet: "One of the most professional and decent educationalists I have known (and one of the best read), Brian’s honour so well-deserved and received with his typical humility. Congratulations to Brian Christian MBE."