{"id":236003,"date":"2026-01-13T18:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236003\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:08:10","slug":"jackie-bird-accepts-mbe-from-princess-royal-at-windsor-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236003\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Bird accepts MBE from Princess Royal at Windsor Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765835709_216_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ba8cda90-f092-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"PA Media Jackie Bird, who has red hair, smiles at the camera as she shows off her MBE. It is in its case and attached toa  ribbon with a bow feature. Jackie is wearing a black jacket and black fascinator. She has a string of pearls around her neck.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Jackie Bird, the face of BBC Scotland News for more than 30 years, has accepted her MBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The 63-year-old, who formerly presented the BBC&#8217;s Reporting Scotland, has become a Member of the British Empire for services to broadcasting and to charities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She also presented BBC Scotland&#8217;s Children In Need show for a number of years and has been president of the National Trust for Scotland since 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">On hearing she was <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cg4zp7reyvdo\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to receive the honour<\/a> she said: &#8220;I&#8217;m thrilled. Absolutely surprised and thrilled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765835709_216_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b60e6710-f081-11f0-8162-5ba718a8bc6a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media The Princess Royal shakes hands with Jackie Bird during the ceremony inside Windsor Castle. The princess is wearing a formal black navy uniform with gold braids. Jackie Bird is wearing a black suit and a black fascinator. The walls are golden\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>Jackie Bird was awarded her MBE by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765835709_216_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b698deb0-f07f-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media Jackie Bird smiles at the Princess Royal after receiving her MBE from the Princess Royal which is displayed on her lapel, attached to a pink ribbon in the shape of a bow. Jackie is wearing a dark blue or black suit with a white top underneath. She has a string of pearls around her neck. You can only see the back of the Princess Royal\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>Jackie Bird was given the honour for services to broadcasting and charities<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Jackie grew up in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, and began working for Jackie magazine at DC Thomson at the age of 17, eventually becoming its pop editor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She also had stints at Radio Clyde, The Sun and Television South Maidstone before joining BBC Scotland in October 1989.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She became the main presenter on Reporting Scotland, covering major news stories, including the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and Dunblane school shootings in 1996. <\/p>\n<p>Jackie Bird&#8217;s 30 years at the BBC<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Jackie was also at the forefront of coverage of the devolution referendum in 1997 and the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She fronted many annual Scottish TV events such as Hogmanay and the World Pipe Band contest for the BBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She stepped down from presenting the news in April 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The honours system<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765835709_216_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/97b92910-c6d6-11ef-87df-d575b9a434a4.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media A number of different medals on a red and black uniform \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Commonly awarded ranks:<\/p>\n<p>Companion of honour &#8211; Limited to 65 people. Recipients wear the initials CH after their nameKnight or DameCBE &#8211; Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOBE &#8211; Officer of the Order of the British EmpireMBE &#8211; Member of the Order of the British EmpireBEM &#8211; British Empire Medal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media Jackie Bird, the face of BBC Scotland News for more than 30 years, has accepted her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-236003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}