Former Grantham resident awarded Damehood in New Year’s Honours

Ab-Fab actress Joanna Lumley, who once lived in Grantham with her then husband-to-be Stephen Barlow, has been appointed a Dame in today’s New Year’s Honours List.

She had known Stephen Barlow, since she he was 13 and In the mid-1980s they shared a series of homes awaiting his divorce to be finalised.  They married in 1986.

One of these homes was Green Lawns, in Grantham’s Redcross Street. They moved out in 1989, returning to London.

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE FRGS was born in 1946 in Kashmir, India,  the daughter of a major in the Gurkha Rifles, and spent most of her early childhood in the Far East where her father was posted.

An aspiring actress, she first came to fame as a model in London’s swinging 1960s, where she was photographed by the greats, including her friend, the late Patrick Lichfield. She was designer Jean Muir’s muse and house model for several years before carving a career as a freelance model where she became one of the top ten most-booked models of the 1960s.

Lumley’s breakthrough role was as Purdey in The New Avengers (1976), a role for which over 800 girls auditioned. Purdey propelled Lumley to instant fame and created one of the “must-have” hairstyles of the 1970s — the Purdey bob.

Other roles followed, most notably as Sapphire in Sapphire & Steel (1979) opposite David McCallum — a sci-fi precursor to The X-Files (1993) and an under-rated gem of a series which has gained a cult following in recent years, despite the fact it has only ever been shown ONCE on terrestrial TV.

It was her reinvention as a comic actress in Absolutely Fabulous (1992) that shot Lumley to wider international acclaim.

Her role as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous (1992) is regarded as one of the greatest female comic performances ever, earning Lumley a stream of awards, including several BAFTAs.

Since then, Lumley has cemented her role as one of the UK’s most-loved & respected actresses. She is rarely off UK TV screens and has also built a successful film career as a character/voice-over actress.

She has spoken out as a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign and is now considered a “national treasure” of Nepal because of her support.

She is an advocate for a number of charities and animal welfare groups such as Compassion in World Farming and Vegetarians’ International Voice for Animals. She is patron of the Farm Animal Sanctuary. She also won the Special Recognition Award at The National Television Awards in 2013.

Following her rise to fame, Lumley revealed that she had been an unmarried mother during the 1960s when it was socially unacceptable; her son, James, was born in 1967.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). She was awarded a honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. D.Litt.) by the University of Kent in July 1994. In 2002, she was awarded a honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University.  In 2006, she was awarded a honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. D.Litt.) from the University of St. Andrews. and in July 2008, she was also awarded a honorary Doctor of the University (Hon DUniv) from Queen’s University Belfast.

Alongside her work for the Gurkhas, Lumley is a supporter of many charities, including Suffolk Family Carers and Kids for Kids. She has been a vegetarian for forty years and a keen supporter of animal rights charities, including CIWF and Viva!