A music teacher has been named in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.

Tim Meynell, 74, of Rusts Lane, Alconbury, will be awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to education.

Mr Meynell, a governor and volunteer music teacher at Alconbury C of E Primary School, was nominated for the honour for giving up his time to teach children at the school to play musical instruments for at least 18 years.

He said: “It’s quite odd to be rewarded for doing what I love doing. It is enormous fun teaching music to children.

“I learned how to play the flute at Huntingdon Music School when my daughter Louisa was five. I learned how to play the flute and she learned the violin. I started teaching music in the school because I was a governor and then in about 2006 the county council asked schools to come up with an idea. Ours was to offer whole class music lessons and they award us funding and since then it really has sped up. I’m not the only one who does it, normally there are one or two others with me.”

Mr Meynell, who became a governor at the school more than 20 years ago, will be presented with his BEM by the Lord Lieutenant and will be invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

He added: “Like most people, I’ve only ever been to the gates so it is exciting to get the chance to go in. I had no idea I had been nominated until the letter came through my door. Keeping quiet has been quite difficult. I told the school headmistress, but I think she had a hand in it.”

Mr Meynell, pictured, plans to leave his role as governor next August, at the same time as headteacher Linda Dove.

The nomination reads: “He has motivated other musical parents to help him teach and manage the high numbers of children that want to play recorders or flutes across the school. It is not uncommon now for children to have achieved music grade 5 (GCSE equivalent) when they leave the school aged 11.”