MBE for Marlow Bottom synchronised swimming coach

A grandmother and swimming coach has been made an MBE for services to synchronised swimming.

Jenny Gray, from Marlow Bottom, collected the gong from the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Friday.

It marked the second time the former head of sports coaching at Oxford Brookes University had met the monarch, after a first encounter in 1969 to mark 100 years of the Amateur Swimming Association.

Speaking about the day, she said: “It was a bit frightening and I was a bit nervous, but it was also very exciting and it was all arranged like a bit of a military operation - they’ve obviously done it a few times before.

“But the greatest pleasure for me was that it was the Queen herself who presented it and she was delightful.

“I think I had a full 43 seconds to talk to her and she wanted to know what I did and she said she didn’t realise synchronised swimming had been going for as long as it had been.”