MBE found for lost property manager

Up there with the well known names on the New Year Honours list is one you almost certainly won't recognise - Maureen Beaumont MBE.

As manager of London Transport's lost property office, she has dedicated the past three decades trying to reunite Londoners with their belongings.

Together with the Baker Street office's 30 other staff, Ms Beaumont, 57, deals with up to 600 items a day which have been left on the Tube, London buses and in licensed black cabs.

At any one time they have around 4,000 items on the premises, kept in four cavernous underground storage rooms. "We get about 200 people coming in every day looking for lost belongings, and receive about 150 letters," said Ms Beaumont.

In a sign of the times, the most commonly lost items are mobile phones, where it used to be bowler hats and umbrellas in her early days in Baker Street. More unusual lost items to come in include a 14ft boat, three holdalls full of sultanas and various items of furniture. "Working here, nothing surprises you," said Ms Beaumont. "False legs and dentures are quite common, as are armchairs, children's cots and pets.

"We all got very excited when a hammer came in with some documents written in Italian. The Italian embassy translated and said they believed it was Michelangelo's hammer and probably priceless.

"But when we finally got in touch with the owner in Italy, he said he had already had it valued at Sotheby's and they said it was only worth a few pounds, so he had left it on the Tube deliberately."

The office once had to place a newspaper ad to trace the owner of some precious Russian icons. "Then there was the gentleman who left a briefcase with £10,000 in cash on the Tube," said Ms Beaumont. "It took us two months to trace him. He turned out to be a rather eccentric old man who had taken to carrying his savings everywhere with him.

"The best part of the job is seeing people reunited with belongings which maybe aren't worth much but are priceless to them. I often wish the people who hand things in could see the faces of the owners when they get their things back."

Many of the other Londoners to receive honours have worked to improve community relations. Chaudhury Mohammed Anwar, 66, an executive on Enfield race equality council and chairman of the Enfield Bangladesh Welfare Association, was awarded an MBE. And Metropolitan Police constable Richard Beavis was also awarded the MBE for his services to the community in Thamesmead.

The big names honoured from the worlds of showbusiness and sport include Jimmy Young, who has received a knighthood. Ben Kingsley, Oscar-winning star of Gandhi also received a knighthood, while actresses Miriam Margolyes and Lynn Redgrave were honoured with the OBE.

Heavyweight boxer Lennox Lewis received a CBE, England cricket captain Nasser Hussain was awarded an OBE and Liverpool footballer Gary McAllister got an MBE.