JOE Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, has been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The 54-year-old former social worker was given the gong for services to local government.
Anderson, who was leader of the City Council before becoming the first-ever directly elected mayor of the city just a few weeks ago , said: “I am very surprised and humbled to receive this honour and regard it as much for the people of the city as for myself.
“It is particularly pleasing that it should be made during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year.”
Mayor Anderson left school at 16 and joined the Merchant Navy and later P&O Ferries, spending 12 years at sea.
By the age of 20, he was a steward of the National Union of Seamen and became the youngest ever convener.
Services to local government: Joe Anderson
His subsequent career brought him back to Liverpool, where he studied for a degree in social work at Liverpool John Moores University, and then went on to become a social worker for Sefton Council in 1992.
He moved into education welfare and was appointed to lead a social inclusion unit for young people with behavioural and emotional difficulties. He also studied Labour History at Liverpool University.
Anderson was elected to Liverpool City Council for the Abercomby ward (now Riverside) in Liverpool in 1998, the place where he grew up. He became Leader of the Labour Group on the council three years later, and Leader of the Council in 2010.
Joe is married to Marg and has four children and two grandchildren.
Gary Barlow also gets one.
