England Lionnesses Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead receive MBEs at Windsor Castle

PA
Beth Mead (left) and Lucy Bronze (right) were given their honours by Prince William, who is the President-Designate of the Football Association. Credit: PA

Two England Lionesses are among those to have become Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

During an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday 10 May, Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead received their honours from the Prince of Wales, Prince William.

The honour recognises the pair's services to Association Football. 

Mead from Whitby, North Yorkshire, and Bronze from Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland were part of the England squad which won the Euros last year.

The accolade is the latest of a number of awards of Mead, 28, who became the joint recipient of the Golden Boot award for the European Championship, and went on to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022.

Speaking after it was announced she would be getting the honour, Bronze, 31, said the first person she told was her grandma.

She said: "To be recognised for everything I've done throughout my career was a little bit surreal. It's just something so different from football and something harder to compute.

"An MBE is obviously a huge honour and very special ... My grandma probably doesn't understand many of the awards I've won in football but she adored the Queen, so I thought 'this (MBE) is going to be her special thing'."

In a tweet, Mead said: "WOW! Words can’t express the pride I felt when I received my MBE today.

"Never did I think I’d be deserving of something so prestigious for playing the game I love.

"Proud day for me & my family, mum would of been in her element but she was definitely there at heart."

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