Mr Daniel Daley was awarded the MBE in the New Years honours list. It was awarded him for his work within the Montserratian community.
Click on a thumbnail to see the full-size picture.
 Getting ready: Annie pins Danny's medal on, while Mary Brown sorts out the cassette recorder |
 Danny Daley, MBE |
 Daniel Jr. and Thomas Daley |
 Jane Furlonge MBE with Mary Brown and her husband Paul |
 Lazelle Howes arrives |
 Brunel Meade and Mary Brown |
 Phil Ellis |
 Roger Panton |
 William Trant OBE talks to Claude Brooks MBE, an Anguillan |
 Elizabeth Trant |
 Bob Minnear |
 Jackie Osborne brings round the wine |
 Gabriel with Estelle Willock |
 From the wall display in the foyer |
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On 19 May 2001 MOPPA organized a formal Reception in Tottenham, London, for Danny Daley, who was awarded the MBE in the New Year's honours in recognition of his work within the Montserratian community.
After a word of prayer from Gabriel Parsons, Mary Brown introduced the formal part of the reception with a "This is your life" for Danny Daley. Born 24 December 1938 in Harris's, he came to England in 1957. In 1959 he started work with London Transport, where he remained until he took early retirement in 1995, by which time he had risen to the rank of Duty Crew Manager at the Neasden depot of London Underground. When the volcano crisis arose, he took on the task, on behalf of MOPPA, of being present at Heathrow every Thursday and Saturday to meet the inbound flight from Antigua and assist evacuees from Monterrat. His wife Annie and his sons Daniel Jr. and Thomas hardly saw him for two years... He still continues to offer his voluntary assistance to Montserratians in London, for example with passport and visa applications and with obtaining birth certificates.
Other speakers followed.
William Trant MBE called Danny 'the guy who does the donkey work', out of sight behind the scenes. He welcomed the award of the honour to Danny, and went on to call for more black people to be given public recognition, and called on the community to identify further worthy cases to be nominated for such honours.
Phil Ellis had been the officer on the Montserrat desk at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. While he had not always been able to agree with Danny, he acknowledged the sterling service Danny had given the community.
Lazelle Howes, of the Montserrat Community Support Trust, said that Danny could be seen in their offices at least every week, continuing to work on behalf of Montserratians.
Brunel Meade, until recently a member of the MNI Legislature, saluted Danny's achievement, as did Roger Panton, standing in for his wife Gloria, Head of the Montserrat Government UK Office, who was unable to be present.
Bob Menneear had been working for Heathrow Travel Care at the time of the emergency. Danny's work had been invaluable, particularly in recognizing and identifying Montserratians among a great crowd of other passengers arriving from the Caribbean.
Gabriel Parsons sang two songs to great applause. He finished, inevitably, with "Danny Boy".
Jane Furlonge, chair of MOPPA, likened Danny to a rough diamond - crude on the outside, but cool, hard, and sparkling inside.
There were a few more speakers from the floor, and Mary Brown wound up the proceedings by presenting a bouquet of flowers to Danny's supportive and patient wife Annie. (Mary claimed the credit for having first introduced them one to the other.)
Danny spoke briefly in reply, claiming that this was all difficult to believe. His son Daniel Jr. then presented further flowers on behalf of the family.
These proceedings were followed by an excellent buffet and then dancing, finishing at 1 am.
I estimate that there were slightly under 200 people present.
John Wells