Honour for father of IRA victim

Mr Parry said the honour was for all of his family

Peace campaigner Colin Parry - whose son was killed by an IRA bomb in 1993 - has said he is honoured to receive an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

The 57-year-old's son Tim was aged 12 when he died in the Warrington blast with three-year-old Jonathan Ball.

He had gone into the town centre to buy football shorts. Fifty-six others were injured by the bomb.

He helped set up the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Trust and set up the Peace Centre in Warrington in 2000.

It runs courses for young people aged from three to 19 using sport, craft and education and aims "to give young people a passion for peace in their lives".

Tim Parry (right) died after going shopping for football shorts

It also runs a project for UK-based victims of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, including former soldiers.

Mr Parry is chairman of the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Trust where his wife, Wendy, is a full time fundraiser.

The couple also wrote a book about their son, called An Ordinary Boy, to help them cope with their grief and have two surviving children, Dominic, 25, and 22-year-old Abbi.

Mr Parry said: "I am usually the spokesman for what we do and it is my name on the list, but really I'm accepting it on behalf of the whole family.

"It recognises their resilience and hard work, and that of everyone else who works at the centre.

Redmond honoured for drama success

"The trauma that happened to us usually results in the disintegration of the family, but this centre has been a form of therapy for us.

"I'm extremely pleased to be recognised in this way and anything that draws attention to the work we do here is welcome."

Other North West figures to receive honours included Grange Hill creator and Mersey Television chief Phil Redmond, whose other credits include Brookside and Hollyoaks.

Mr Redmond began writing Grange Hill in 1978. It broke ground by using a children's drama to tackle controversial issues such as drug addiction.

Fellow Merseysider, Roger McGough, 66, received the CBE for his poetry which first came to attention in the late 1960s.

He co-wrote The Mersey Sound with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten in 1968, which became the biggest selling poetry compilation ever.

Politician and Manchester MP Gerald Kaufman and Liverpool City Council chief executive David Henshaw received knighthoods.

In Lancashire, Professor David Chadwick, of Ormskirk, received an OBE for his services to road safety along with Preston's Alan Woods, the chief executive of EnCams, formerly the Tidy Britain Group, who received the honour for his work on sustainable development.