UK ethnic minorities featured prominently among the last recipients of the Queen’s honours list presented by Prince of Wales at the Buckingham Palace recently.

Mr Prem Goyal, one of the patrons of Tayo Situ Foundation was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list last summer for services to the economy and promoting charitable giving.

The entrepreneur is an active supporter of several local charities including the Tayo Situ Foundation and many others.

Prem said: “All my efforts since moving to the UK have been focused on creating jobs and uplifting our communities. For that to be acknowledged like this, well that’s just fantastic. I only want to keep doing more.”

He broke with tradition in launching a public appeal for nominations for a ‘community star’ from Southwark to accompany him to the palace for the investiture.

“It was with the support of the community I got this award, so I really wanted to create a memorable experience for someone doing good work locally,” said Mr Goyal.

Accompanying Prem a Magistrate and school governor Sirajul Islam said, “It was a good experience to go inside Buckingham Palace, l was very proud of what Prem’s achieved.”

Prem said, “I was thrilled to collect my OBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace.

What made it extra special though was getting a hug from Tessa Jowell, who was there picking up her DBE for political and charitable service. She’s a real inspiration and I’m very pleased for her.

Being inside the Palace, surrounded by symbols of the country’s history, customs and culture, I felt deeply proud to be citizen of this land. One-by-one they came up to receive their awards for good deeds done; it was very clear how many talented and outstanding people we have in the UK. Witnessing the ceremony and speaking to other recipients, I’m confident the country’s best days are still yet to come.

As one of my guests I invited Sirajul Islam, a fellow Southwark resident. However, unusually for a guest at an investiture, we’d never met each other before. This was because last year I put out an appeal to find someone doing good work in the community who would like a chance to experience a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Sirajul is a magistrate and a school governor at Charlotte Sharman Primary School in Elephant & Castle. I was glad when he said he got a lot out of the experience and gained from seeing inside the Palace.

Since moving to the UK I’ve been committed to creating jobs and uplifting communities. Receiving this honour has strengthened my resolve to make a difference, especially in my own community in Southwark. With our collective efforts, I believe we can come together and ensure every young person can achieve their full potential and everyone can live in a decent home”.