Photographers, dance teachers, anti-slavery ambassadors, and charity and community workers are among those named in the New Year’s Honours list.

The British Empire Medal (BEM) is a medal awarded for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown.

People can be made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) as a reward for their contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the Civil Service.

Here are some of the recipients from across south London, north Surrey and Kent:

  • Mr Peter William Dazeley, 68, from Kingston, for services to photography and charity;
  • Mrs Avril Froma Hitman, 63, from Chiselhurst, for services to people with learning disabilities in Bromley through dance and arts;
  • Mr Sewa Singh Nandhra, 66, from New Cross, for services to the community particularly in Woolwich;
  • Mr James Gregory Warner, 80, from London, for services to heritage and people with learning disabilities in Greenwich;
  • Mrs Jennifer Cooke, 76, from London, for services to supporting people with neuro-disabilities;
  • Mr Massa Singh Nandra, 78, from Kent, for services to charity and the community in south London;
  • Mrs Vanita Patel, 60, from Kingston, for charitable services to Human Rights;
  • Mrs Rita Yvonne Roberts Upchurch, 84, from Croydon, for services to the development of cosmetic camouflage.

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Mr Peter William Dazeley, 68, from Kingston, was awarded a BEM for services to photography and charity.

An award-winning fine art photographer, Mr Dazeley’s work has been exhibited all over the world, earning him global recognition.

After joining the body now known as the Association of Photographers (AOP) in 1977 and becoming a life member seven years later, he served on the Board as a director on more than one occasion.

Mr Dazeley is renowned for exploring and experimenting with new ideas and developing techniques in the art of photography, including x-ray, solarisation and anamorphic photography.

As a Londoner passionate about the history of the city, over the past few years he has been shooting a personal, self-funded project to capture London as it stands in the 21st century.

The project’s success has been recognised and was published as a book, London Uncovered, in 2014.

He has given much in terms of his time and energy to mentoring and inspiring young photographers.

Avril Hitman, 63, from Chislehurst, was awarded an BEM for services to people with learning disabilities in Bromley through dance and arts.

In 1985, creative activities for people with learning disabilities were non-existent so she founded Magpie Dance, growing the group into a successful inclusive contemporary dance company.

Starting with a once-weekly sessions, Magpie now supports 3000 people aged eight to 80 annually.

The training programme provides development from youth to adult schemes and access to perform at the Peacock Theatre and Trafalgar Square.

In 1997, Magpie became a charity, receiving income from trusts, foundations and lottery funds and recently received funding to set up classes for gifted dancers who want being careers in dance.

Over £250k was raised each year in order to deliver 200 sessions to over 200 people.

She introduced an Inclusive Dance Practice Training Scheme and Dance and staff Training in Healthcare for complex needs with Oxleas NHS Foundation with NHS staff seeing a physical and mental improvement in participants.

Sewa Nandhra, 66, from New Cross, was awarded an MBE for his community work in Woolwich.

Whilst working as a Principal Building Control officer with the local council, he devotes much of his time for the community's betterment.

He works promoting equal opportunities, social inclusion and welfare including worldwide missionary activities with the Khalsa Parcharak Jatha International, and United Nations.

He has contributed enormously to the communities within Europe and especially the southeast London far beyond his role as President of Ramgarhia Sikh Association Woolwich (RSA).

Due to his efforts the centre is now fully occupied seven days a week by people of all ages and carries out over 750 events annually.

These include daily services, free snacks and meals and regular health care, lectures, music and other workshops and family functions along with a sports centre and school for children improving early learning and a centre for the elderly citizens.

He has also helped to host and finance community cohesion functions such as multicultural fairs, sports competitions.

Mr James Gregory Warner, 80, from London, was awarded a BEM for services to heritage and people with learning disabilities in Greenwich.

For the past 40 years, he has played a significant part in the process of informing and educating the wider community of both the heritage of the industrial era, alongside his work raising awareness of the needs and values of people with learning disabilities.

In 1996, he joined the Crossness Engines Trust as a volunteer. The aim of the group is the restoration of the engines and the buildings of the Beam Engine House, a Victorian era sewage pumping station.

In the early days, he began as part of the team restoring the beam engine, Prince Consort, helping to strip it down so the parts could be restored or replaced.

Currently, he continues to identify unrestored areas of paintwork around the beam engine.

Mrs Jennifer Cooke, 76, from London, was awarded an MBE for services to supporting people with neuro-disabilities.

Mrs Cooke has helped to raise close to £1 million for people with neuro-disabilities.

She been a member of the Royal Hospital of Neurodisability (RHN) London Committee since 1959, and became its chair in 1975, leading a team of volunteers to help raise money for the RHN.

The hospital, based in Putney, is the oldest independent hospital and medical charity in the UK, and provides rehabilitation and long term care to people with serious disabilities caused by brain injuries.

Mrs Cooke also served as a member of the RHN Board of Management and as a Governor of the Hospital in 1980, retiring in 2011 after 31 years of service.

And, for the past 40 years Mrs Cooke has run weekly tea parties in her home for isolated older people, in conjunction with the Wimbledon Guild.

Massa Nandra, 78, won an MBE for services to charity and the community in South London, including founding the Indian Cultural Society (ICS) in Greenwich, organise eye camps to cure cataracts in India, and helping open two Sikh temples in Woolwich.

In 1964 he set up the ICS to help vulnerable members of the Asian community settle in the borough.

He was involved in setting up two Sikh Temples in Woolwich and opened a drop-in day centre for elderly Asians in the borough of which he is currently chair of the management committee.

He was instrumental in the establishment of an annual go karting fundraising activity to support research into blood disorders at King's College Hospital.

In 1981 he started St Michael's Angels Youth Club in Abbey Wood which is still going strong.

His voluntary support for Greenwich and Bexley Hospice started in 1997 and he continues raising funds for them.

He motivated the club members to help organise numerous eye camps in Indian villages which have resulted in 2,400 successful cataract operations.

They travel every year to India at their own expense to set up these camps and when in Bangalore he also helps the orphanage that he helped to set up.

He has also been at the centre of fund raising for a project to raise funds for the Haematology Lab in King's College Hospital.

Mrs Vanita Patel, 60, from Kingston, was awarded an MBE for charitable services to Human Rights.

Mrs Patel is an anti-slavery ambassador who has raised nearly £1.5 million for anti-slavery charities.

Her profound sense of social justice stems from when she became a trustee of Anti-Slavery. International in 1996.

She proposed an annual ball to raise funds for the charity and volunteered to lead the organising committee herself.

Through her determination, the first ball took place in 1997. She went on to organise ten balls, fundraising dinners, comedy events, art exhibitions and tennis tournaments. In 2014 the charity celebrated its 175th Anniversary Ball.

In 2002 she helped produce the recipe book ‘A Taste for Freedom’, organised marathon runners, brought a leading designer on board to produce charity T-Shirts and worked to rebrand the charity logo. Together, these projects have raised almost £1.5 million for Anti-Slavery UK.

She also works in the local Indian community with her local Mandir and in 2000 organised an event to raise funds to pledge housing for villagers whose lives had been devastated by floods in Gujarat.

Mrs Rita Yvonne Roberts Upchurch, 84, from Croydon, was awarded an MBE for services to the development of cosmetic camouflage.

Mrs Upchurch has devoted her career and much of her life to improving the lives of those with facial disfigurement caused by burns or medical conditions.

She developed a new camouflage make-up technique which continues to help people with various forms of disfigurement. Her skills in camouflage and skin care have transformed thousands of lives blighted by disfigurement and exclusion.

Her special make-up system and palette to mix the colours for the perfect coverage of all scars was displayed at the British Design Centre London in 1986 and won a medical award for innovation.

At the request of The British Red Cross Society she helped start beauty therapy services and advanced beauty care within UK hospitals.

This development raised the profile of beauty therapy and created the bridge between some medical services and beauty therapy.