PROFESSOR JAMES Drummond Bone, of Cupar, the vice-chancellor of Liverpool University, has been recognised for his services to higher education and regeneration in the north-west of England with a knights bachelor award.

He has held his post since 2002, for two years was president of Universities UK, and has been principal of Royal Holloway, London University.

Educated at Glasgow and Oxford universities, and formerly senior vice-principal at Glasgow, he is a professor of English literature internationally known for his work in romantic studies, particularly on Byron. He co-edits the journal Romanticism.

As a university leader and manager he has been part of a number of initiatives at both institutional and national level, many aimed at bringing the worlds of business and industry closer to universities.

Professor Bone is a Universities UK board member and member of the Universities UK England and Northern Ireland Council.

*Joyce Laing of Pittenweem, former chairman of Pittenweem Arts Festival, receives the OBE for her services to the arts in Fife.

She was a founder of the festival, which started in 1982, and is an art therapist who runs the Art Extraordinary Trust.

*Kirkcaldy man Professor Richard Fawcett, a principal inspector with Historic Scotland, is to be awarded an OBE for his public and voluntary service.

Professor Fawcett is a specialist in the architecture of the middle ages, with particular research interest in the church architecture of medieval Scotland.

*David Grisenthwaite (80), who also lives in Kirkcaldy, is to receive an MBE for his voluntary service to the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association and to the community in Fife.

Mr Grisenthwaite has been involved with the association for 15 years and continues to support serving men and women in the armed forces, their families and dependants.

“It came completely out of the blue but obviously I’m delighted,” he said.

Mr Grisenthwaite gained national fame a few years ago for his work as an amateur phenological data recorder, having meticulously recorded every mowing of his lawn for 20 years.

His first cut of the year was 13 days earlier in 1984 than in 2004 and his last cut was 17 days later, providing evidence for an earlier onset of spring and a warmer climate in general.

When his data was discovered by meteorologists it was hailed as an important find in recording climate change and his work, entitled The Grass Is Greener For Longer, is credited in the Royal Meteorological Society Journal.

*James White Simpson, former chief harbour master of Forth Ports who now chairs the Scottish Coastal Forum, has been awarded an MBE.

He was honoured for services to the environment and to the voluntary sector.

Mr Simpson, of Dunfermline, joined Forth Ports in 1973 and stayed with the firm until 2002. He became chief harbourmaster in 1996.

Among his achievements is helping to cultivate a strategy to manage Scotland’s coasts.

The 63-year-old volunteers for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association as a puppy walker.