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Introduction

Honorary fellows: 2017

Honorary Fellowships are awarded on an annual basis in recognition of individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the university and in support of a variety of causes linked to the work of the university.

July 2017

Roger Francis Adrian Cooke MA MBA

For his lifelong and outstanding contribution to business and management, and to the arts and charitable work in Cumbria.

Roger Cooke was born in Hereford and read Modern History at New College Oxford. After graduating, Roger worked briefly as a teacher in London and then as a management trainee in a large industrial company. After four years he was awarded a Thouron Fellowship to study for an MBA at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Returning to to the UK in 1970, Roger joined the management consulting side of the international firm of Coopers & Lybrand (later PwC) where he stayed for over 30 years, including nearly eighteen years as a partner. After retiring from PwC, Roger was asked to become Managing Director and Chief Executive of Oxford Policy Management Ltd, an international development consultancy that had been spun-out from the University of Oxford; later he became non-executive Chairman of the company, until 2023. Roger’s work as a consultant has taken him many parts of the world: sub-Saharan Africa; Egypt, the Palestine Occupied Territories and other parts of the middle east; Pakistan, Afghanistan and other parts of south, east and south-east Asia; the eastern Caribbean; western and eastern Europe; north America, and Australia. Roger’s Cumbria-based activities have included Trustee and Chair of the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust, trustee of Lake District Calvert Trust, and a board director of Solway Communications and a volunteer group interested in raising the profile of Carlisle’s railway heritage. Outside Cumbria, Roger was a founder trustee of the London Transport Museum.

Val Corbett

For her lifelong and outstanding contribution to photography (awarded July 2017).

Val Corbett was born and raised in Herefordshire, moving north in 1969 to complete a BA (Hons) degree in Religious Studies at Lancaster University. Val has long held a keen interest in photography and over the last 40 years has worked as a self-taught freelance photographer. She was initially well-known for her striking images of the Lake District and Cumbria, many of which were published in her own books. These included diverse subjects such as winter and rainy weather. At other times she worked for a number of authors on a variety of commissions, including ceramics, poetry, the Arts and Craft Houses of the Lake District and Joss, the legendary fell runner. For many years Val’s local photography featured extensively in Cumbria Life magazine for whom she wrote a monthly Masterclass column.

She is now principally recognised for her garden photography, which is frequently published in national magazines including Country Life. Her summers have been taken up with photographing gardens throughout the British Isles. Val’s images have been extensively used in support of the National Gardens Scheme. Aside from gardens and her landscape work she has produced a record of the restoration work for the Lowther Castle and Gardens Trust and helped build up the photographic libraries for the Lake District National Park, Eden District Council and Carlisle City Council. More recently her images were used in the successful submission by the Lake District to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Val is a popular speaker at a variety of groups and societies and although describing herself as ‘retired’, still feels she has one more book in her.

Karen Darke MBE

For her lifelong and outstanding contribution to sport.

Karen Darke is a British Paralympic cyclist, para-triathlete, adventurer and author. A keen athlete from a young age, Karen’s first love was climbing. However, in 1993, at the age of 21, a climbing accident left her paralysed from the chest down. Her positive attitude and determination to live a life where all things are possible prompted Karen to gain her PhD Geology from the University of Aberdeen, a mere three years after her accident. During this time, whilst becoming accustomed to life in a wheelchair, she completed a number of expeditions including handbiking the length of Japan. The success of these expeditions encouraged Karen to start racing on the handbike and in 2010 she joined the Great Britain Para-Cycling Team. Karen enjoyed immediate success in 2011 winning bronze medals in the time trial and the road race at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Denmark as well as picking up three silver medals in world cup events. From 2012 to 2016 she dominated the world Para-cycling stage picking up bronze, silver and gold medals in the World Championships, World Cup and enjoyed her greatest success at the Rio Olympics in 2016 dominating the time-trial event and winning the first Paralympic gold medal of her career. Karen’s quest for personal development through her sporting career and continuing education reveals her commitment to self-fulfilment and life-long learning. In 2009, Karen gained an MA in Development Training from the University of Cumbria and holds Diplomas in performance coaching and traditional Chinese medicine. In between Karen’s training and expeditions, she is an experienced coach and speaks to audiences around the world about overcoming challenge and change.

https://www.karendarke.com/ 

John M W Grainger MA FCMI

For his lifelong and outstanding contribution to economic development and business growth in Cumbria.  (awarded July 2017)

John Grainger’s early career was spent running retail travel companies in the North East and also as a Professional Tournament Director with the Lawn Tennis Association.  In 1990 he moved to Cumbria to the newly created West Cumbria Development Agency.  This spawned the start of nearly three decades of John specialising in foreign direct investment activity in the region, many of who are in the nuclear sector and have settled in West Cumbria.  In 1994 John furthered his own professional development to gain a Masters Degree in Management from the University of Northumbria, at its campus in Carlisle.  In 1998 Cumbria Inward Investment Agency was created and John moved into the post of Director of Operations before becoming Managing Director of Invest In Cumbria.  He continued in that role until the absorbing of the company activity into the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership in 2016. 

Since that time John has run his own management consultancy and works primarily as the Stakeholder Relations Director of Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster.  A Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute since 1998, John has been associated with most of the large inward investment projects in Cumbria over the past twenty years.  A sporting enthusiast he has recently spent three years as a Director of Cumbria Cricket. John was Chair Cockermouth School Academy for three years.  Currently he is also Chair of Carlisle Lake District Airport Consultative Committee.  In 2019, John was the first recipient of the Robin Burgess Award for “Lifetime contribution to Cumbria”.

Wayne Hemingway MBE and Gerardine Hemingway MBE

For their lifelong and outstanding contribution to design and creativity. (awarded July 2017)

In 1982 Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway started selling a range of second-hand clothes on Camden Market in London. The following year they opened a store in Kensington selling Gerardine’s designed and self-made clothes. Their debut ‘Red or Dead’ collection was an immediate success, receiving global acclaim. This success culminated in Wayne and Gerardine winning the British Fashion Council’s Streetstyle Designer of the Year Award from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, they sold ‘Red or Dead’ and set up the multi-disciplinary ‘HemingwayDesign’ specialising in affordable and social design. Their mission statement “Design is approving things that matter in life” takes them through major town centre and coastal regeneration projects, placemaking, events, affordable housing, product, and brand design. In 2010 the first HemingwayDesign Festival opened and over the years their annual events including The National Festival of Making, First Light Festival, the Urban Village Fete, The Classic Car Boot Sale, the Festival of Thrift and the Vintage Festivals have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors.

They have won numerous internationally significant awards over the years for their projects including the current Charity Super.Mkt initiative. In 2015 their newly designed London Transport uniform was rolled out across the network. HemingwayDesign are creative directors for some of Europe’s largest developers as well as working with councils around the UK Wayne spent a decade on the Trustee Board of the Design Council and is and works with the Mayor of London as a Design Advocate. Wayne and Gerardine are involved in charity work for Shelter, the Princes Trust and Oxfam and received MBE’s in 2006 for their work.

Professor Paul Workman FRS FMedSci

For his lifelong and outstanding contribution to cancer research and drug discovery. (awarded July 2017)

Paul Workman was born in Workington, Cumbria.  He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester, followed by a PhD in Cancer Pharmacology at the University of Leeds. The early part of Paul’s career was spent establishing and leading the Pharmacology and New Drug Development Laboratory in the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Oncology Unit at the University of Cambridge.  Following a sabbatical at Stanford University and SRI International, USA, Paul was appointed Professor and Director of Research in Medical Oncology at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Beatson Laboratories, Glasgow University, before being recruited to the cancer leadership team at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca) where he oversaw many organizational and scientific initiatives and led the biology of the team that developed one of the first targeted cancer medicines widely used for use in patients with lung cancer.  In 1997, Paul joined The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, where over the next two decades he built and directed the world’s largest and most successful non-profit cancer drug discovery group – the CRUK Cancer Therapeutics Unit.  Paul was appointed Deputy Chief Executive of the ICR in 2011 and from 2014-2021 served as its Chief Executive and President, a role in which he oversaw strategic developments in the fields of basic, translational and clinical cancer research.  He was also Founding Director of the CRUK Convergence Science Centre at ICR/Imperial College, created to bring together the engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer research and treatment. Paul is acknowledged as a world leader in the molecular pharmacology and chemical biology of cancer. He has dedicated his life and career to multidisciplinary cancer research and drug discovery; published around 600 research articles; been instrumental in the discovery and progression to the clinic of numerous drug candidates; and won a number of prestigious awards. Paul is a CRUK Life Fellow, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of Royal Society of Biology, and Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society – the highest accolade in UK science – and also named in the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 list of the most influential people in London. In 2018, Paul was named as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers (Clarivate). As well as his academic research, he has been a founder and adviser to numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Paul is Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at ICR, Co-Director of the CRUK Children's Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence at ICR/Cambridge University, and Executive Director of the Chemical Probes Portal. In addition, he talks, writes and blogs about cancer research and treatment and the drug discovery ecosystem.

NOVEMBER 2017

Paul Bell

For his lifelong and outstanding contribution excellence in the world of squash coaching (awarded November 2017)

Paul was born in Carlisle and spent most of his childhood training and competing on the England Junior Circuit in the sport of squash.  Whilst studying Sports Technology at Liverpool John Moore’s University in Liverpool he started coaching the sport and realised that this was an avenue he wished to pursue as a career.  In 2009 he joined the Galway Lawn Tennis Club as Head Squash Coach and Regional Development Officer of Irish Squash.  Paul worked with the national junior teams in Ireland which gave him the chance to travel around Europe’s top junior events.  The following season Paul was promoted to Assistant National Coach on a part-time basis where he would oversee the full junior programme and the women’s senior team.  Carlisle Squash Club recognised his coaching skills away from his home ground and, over the next four years he continued his work in Ireland and developed the potential of the talent back in Carlisle. 

Paul has numerous coaching achievements including the European Championships senior medal with the Irish Ladies team and, with the junior section in Carlisle, 12 players placed in the England rankings top 10 including a number one ranking, an English championships winner and 3 players representing England.  In 2014 Paul left the Irish Squad to become the North West England Coach and a year later was promoted to England Squash High Performance Coach.  Paul was then approached to become the National Coach of Scottish Squash, and at the age of 28, became the youngest national coach in squash.  Since joining Scottish Squash the team has become world champions in the men’s doubles game and claimed European medals with both the men’s and women’s ending an 18-year wait for European success. Paul also led Scotland to their first Commonwealth Games medal since 1998 at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. He has also coached Greg Lobban to become the first Scottish player since 2005 to achieve a world top 20 player.

Professor Emeritus Margaret Harrison

for her lifelong and outstanding contribution to the contemporary art movement, particularly feminist production. (Awarded November 2017)

Margaret Harrison studied at the Carlisle College of Art on Brampton Road from 1957 to 1961, the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1961 to 1964 and graduated from the Perugia Fine Arts Academy in Italy in 1965. Margaret was one of the founders of the London Women’s Liberation Art Group in 1970. A 1971 exhibition of her work that was closed by the police included a piece depicting the playboy, Hugh Hefner, as a Bunny Girl. Between 1973 and 1975 she collaborated with artists Kay Hunt and Mary Kelly to conduct a study of women’s work in a metal box factory in Bermondsey, London. Her work was included in the exhibition ‘Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists’ at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1980. Margaret continued to work in both the United States and England and has exhibited in many countries including America, Switzerland, Germany, China and Great Britain.

Between 1977 and 2007 she was a Senior Research Professor and Director of the Social and Environmental Art Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2011 she exhibited works on paper in the show “I am a Fantasy”, at the Payne Shurvell Gallery in East London. Her show ‘On Reflection’ was at the same Gallery in 2013 with a one person show at the Silberkuppe Gallery in Berlin the year before. In 2013, she won the Northern Art Prize for her installation ‘Reflect’. In the same year she received one of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists. In 2015 Margaret had a solo show at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York and in 2017 was awarded the accolade of Visual Artist of the Year at the Cumbria Life Culture Awards. Margaret’s exhibition ‘Dialogues Between Sex, Class and Violence’, a retrospective covering work of the past five decades opened in Bilbao, Spain opened in October 2017 and ran until January 2018.
More recently Margaret has exhibitions at:

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