Bob Burns, founder of Glastonbury bakery Burns the Bread, is to be awarded an MBE for his services to charity and the community he lives in.
Daughter Terri told British Baker that the family was waiting for the invitation to Buckingham Palace to arrive, after hearing that the honour was to be awarded a couple of months ago.
She commented: “My father does not blow his own trumpet; he has not been telling people about this. But I have been telling everyone!”
She explained that two separate friends of her father, from charities he supports, had coincidentally decided to nominate him about 18 months ago, and had spoken to her. The group then went through the process of nomination and gathering letters of support without his knowledge.
Bob Burns’ charity baking classes have helped raise tens of thousands of pounds for a wide range of charities over the years, including the local St Margaret’s Hospice.
He is also involved in the Rotary Club, three local schools - including one where he is a governor, the Children’s Society and Guide Dogs charity.
Terri added: “He also does lots of other things which he never even mentions to help people.”
In 2012 Bob Burns also took the title of Baker of the Year at British Baker’s Baking Industry Awards.
Bob Burns started his career in the baking industry as a delivery boy. At the age of 21, Burns and his then wife Sandra went into partnership with her father in a bakery in Honiton, Devon.
In 1983 he and Sandra took on a bakery in Glastonbury High Street, Janes, moving there with daughters Terri, Rebekah and Nadine. There has been a bakery on the site for more than 200 years.
Burns the Bread steadily expanded, opening four new shops. It also acquired two industrial units on the outskirts of Glastonbury, to set up a school of baking, and as a backup-base in case the bakery was hit by a disaster such as a fire.
Burns the Bread continues to be a family company, with two grandchildren Max and Casey working in the business.
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