DORSET’S community heroes have been lauded in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

RNLI principal naval engineer Dr Holly Phillips from Swanage was awarded an MBE for services to maritime safety and the community.

Her role includes helping design lifeboats and ensuring they are safe, and she recently project-managed the replacement of the lifeboats on the Thames.

Dr Phillips, 44, was a volunteer lifeboat crew member in Poole for 17 years until 2012, and started working as a naval architect for the organisation in 2002.

She is also known as a fundraiser and trustee of Swanage Sea Rowing Club.

She said: “I’m surprised and so honoured. It’s one of those things that you never think will happen to you. I really do see it as a team award for all the hard work of so many people.

“What we do here at the RNLI can’t be done alone so this is very much for them as well.”

Chris Rose, 59, who worked as a retained station commander for Gillingham Fire Station for 40 years before retiring in February, was awarded an MBE for services to the community in Dorset.

He said: “I feel deeply humbled because somebody put me forward for this. I am just one of many who do the job within the town, but I take this for all the other people who deserve recognition for their work within the community.

“It is a great honour.”