Recipients of Islington’s highest accolade Honorary Freepersons of the Borough announced

Published: 22 October, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER

THREE of Islington’s finest are to receive the borough’s highest accolade. Lord Smith of Finsbury, Father Jim Kennedy and Colonel Brian Kay will be invested as Honorary Freepersons of the Borough.

Islington Council will confer the awards at a ceremony at the Town Hall, in Upper Street, on Tuesday, November 16.

Lord Smith was a Labour councillor representing Barnsbury before becoming MP for Islington South and Finsbury from 1983 to 2005. He was the first openly gay MP, coming out in 1984, and he served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Tony Blair’s Cabinet from 1997 to 2001. He was elevated to the House of Lords in 2005. 

He is currently chairman of the Environ­ment Agency, a non-departmental body with responsibility to care for the UK’s environment.

Father Kennedy served as Roman Catholic Dean of Islington, with managerial responsibility for all Roman Catholic parishes in the borough.

He was also parish priest at the Blessed Sacrament church in Copenhagen Street, and earned a reputation as a legendary helping hand, notably providing a refuge in his church hall for survivors of the King’s Cross fire in 1987. The Catholic hierarchy moved him to a parish in Cyprus in 2009. 

Colonel Kay has served as Queen’s Representative for the Borough in Islington since 1993 and has been active in assisting Youth Organisations in Uniform (YOU), an umbrella group encompassing Scouts, Guides and military cadets.

Freeperson of the Borough is an honour dating back to the Middle Ages when privileged men were freed of feudal obligations and conferred with certain privileges. Council leader Catherine West joked: “They’ll be able to drive their sheep down Holloway Road.”