Public service by a member of the Council of Lancaster University and an honorary Doctor of Laws graduate has been recognised in the New Year Honours.

Lancaster's Honorary Recorder, His Honour Phillip Sycamore, has been recognised with the award of the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).

“It was a wonderful surprise,” said Phillip, who has retired after 19 years as a Circuit Judge and Deputy High Court Judge.

A proud native of Lancaster, he is a governor of his old school, Lancaster Royal Grammar, and, since 2018, a member of the Council of Lancaster University, where he became an honorary Doctor of Laws graduate in 1999.

Phillip, 69, was appointed as a Circuit Judge in 2001 and later as Chamber President of the Health, Education and Social Care Tribunal Chamber, Deputy Vice-President of Tribunals and a Senior Judicial Appointments Commissioner.

Admitted a solicitor in 1975, he served as President of the Law Society of England and Wales in 1997-98.

In 2008 Lancaster City Council appointed him the city's Honorary Recorder and he also was Lancaster Magistrates' Bench Liaison Judge, two roles which he has valued very much.

In retirement, he is a member of the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel and the General Dental Council's Statutory Panellists' Assurance Committee and he sits as a Sports Arbitrator.