Chichester councillors congratulate one of their own after MBE honours
Chichester councillors have congratulated one of their own after she was appointed an MBE in the King’s birthday honours.
Clare Apel (Lib Dem, Chichester West), who has been Chair of the district council since 2023, was honoured for services to the voluntary sector, to local government and to Holocaust education.
During a meeting of the full council on Tuesday (July 14), leader Adrian Moss said the honour was ‘richly deserved’, adding: “We are very proud to have Clare as our chair and for the service she’s given to this district and the wider community for so many years.”
Councillors applauded Clare, who said the honour ‘came as quite a shock’.
She previously stated: “I’m very honoured obviously and I think it shows people that if you are in local government, it’s important to have a real passion to help the community and other people.”
Both Clare and her husband, Ralph, are the children of Jewish parents, and many of their relatives died in the Holocaust. This has made them both passionate about communicating this history and educating young people about what happened.
She said: “Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day was started by Martin Bell, a previous district councillor, Trevor James myself and my husband, and the work we do educating schoolchildren is so important.
“We work to educate them about genocide, human rights abuses, racism and awful things that happen to people.
“I believe that however awful the Holocaust was, it’s incredibly important that we can take a story that has happened to our family, and if you do it in the right way it can have an amazing effect on children.”