AN ENGINEER who chairs a group to promote business in Basingstoke and beyond has been awarded a CBE.

Geoff French, chairman of the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, was included in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Geoff was chairman of Basingstoke-based engineering consultants, Scott Wilson, for eight years before its acquisition by URS in 2010.

He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2013-2014 having been a vice president since 2008.

He said: “I am honoured to have been awarded a CBE. I have always understood the important role that civil engineers play in shaping society and driving economic growth and the external recognition of this should demonstrate to others that this is a great profession which offers exciting challenges.”

Also included was former England Rugby Union fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, who was awarded a CBE for services to the sport.

The former World Cup winner was a pupil at Lord Wandsworth College, in Long Sutton, near Odiham, and took the school to the semi-finals Daily Mail U-18 Cup.