SHE visited Buckingham Palace as a child to watch her father receive his MBE from King George VI – now a York woman is to return to the palace to receive her own honour.

Kate Cartwright will again step through the palace gates in March after being awarded an MBE for her long years of service to the welfare of prison inmates in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

The honour is being bestowed 64 years after her father, Paddy Power, was given the MBE for his services to the military.

After the Second World War, Mr Power served with the Physical Training Corps at Fulford Barracks – then known as the Infantry Barracks.

Mrs Cartwright, 71, said her father was “immensely proud” of his medal. “I still have his medal hanging on the wall here,” she said.

“He was a regimental sergeant major and he got his MBE for devotion to duty. He was a physical education trainer who inspired young soldiers all over the country.”

Mrs Cartwright, a former teacher at St Margaret Clitherow’s School, recalls her original visit to the palace when she was aged eight, in 1945.

“My sister and I went down with him. We sat on golden chairs and had to sit very still and quiet for a long time. We were very cowed by it.

“We just trailed along behind our father, though it was a very special day.”

The Stockton Lane resident will receive her own MBE for her 15 years of service on the Panel of Lay Observers – a volunteer position which she describes as being the “eyes and ears of the public” while monitoring care and decency in the way prisoners are treated.

“It’s extremely interesting and I think that the way prisoners are treated gives a measure of the civilisation of a country.”

While admitting she and her family were very proud to have a second MBE in the family, Mrs Cartwright remained humble about the honour.

“I’m very conscious that there are a lot of people who do a lot of volunteer work who don’t get recognised.”