AN inspirational Tavistock resident has been honoured for his services to the community in the New Year Honours list.

Brian Fyfield-Shayler from Tavistock has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the town.

A retired schoolteacher, Mr Fyfield-Shayler taught as head of English at the model Al-Thaghr School in Jeddah. He made national headlines in 2001 when it was revealed he had taught the terrorist Osama bin Laden.

He drifted away from teaching during the 1970s and returned to England to become a permanent resident of Tavistock in 1984.

Mr Fyfield-Shayler believes there are several factors that resulted with him being awarded the BEM.

He has been involved in several organisations and charities in the town and further afield — being the founder of Friends of Hadhramaut, a trust formed to give humanitarian help to one of the most under developed regions in the world.

Within a year of moving to the town he became a prison visitor in Dartmoor Prison, where it soon became known to the chaplain that Mr Fyfield-Shayler had experience with dealing with people with alcohol and addiction problems.

He said: 'In 1980 the prison governors' association said that 60 percent of prisoners had a drink problem, the prison officers' association said it was 75 per cent and the prisoners said it was 90 per cent — so the chaplain kept adding more and more charges to my list to visit, and that kept me busy for 12 years.'

Meanwhile in Tavistock he became involved with Kingdon House Association a year after it was started.

He had originally visited the building in 1977 as he heard it had a vegetarian café on the upper ground floor.

'I was impressed with this and within a few weeks I became a volunteer and stayed in touch with Kingdon House.

'When I came back to live, I became a trustee of the association, and I am still actively involved with this.'

Mr Fyfield-Shayler has also been a trustee of the Tavistock Subscription Library since 1999, when it celebrated its bicentenary.

And a most notable part of Mr Fyfield-Shayler's involvement with Tavistock was when he started the Tavistock Tree Preservation Group.

He said: 'I was aghast when I saw a third of the trees had disappeared when I returned, and I thought not a lot could be done to stop this.

'In 2002 there was an application to remove 35 trees in the town's two cemeteries and as a result of an article in the Times, we got a committee going which appealed for a second opinion and in the end it went from 35 to five.

'Two years ago, I pulled out of the Tavistock Tree Group, as it is now called, due to mobility problems and it is now run by Howard Jones.

'Its role now is not just to preserve but to plant and maintain trees.'

Mr Fyfield-Shayler was nominated for his award several years ago by two friends, Fionn MacReady-Bryan and Dr Julie Evans, with backing from two former town mayors, Caroline Keane and Anne Johnson.

Although Mr Fyfield-Shayler admitted he was a little 'embarrassed' to be recognised for services to the community, when he felt he had not done as much for the town as others, he was still very happy with the recognition.

He was particularly pleased that supporting the application were many letters sent in by people whom he had helped at times of crisis, often due to alcohol and addiction problems.

He said: 'I'm absolutely delighted with this, I know it shouldn't be important but I am delighted.

'I'm most touched that these friends fought so long and so hard for me to get this award and did not give up.

'I'm very pleased we will have two ceremonies as I can take the two people who got this process going to the ceremony.

'And for the garden party at Buckingham Palace, I would love to take Ali Maumood, who I adopted, who was seriously injured in Aden, and is now completely wheelchair bound, his wife Sahra, and their adopted orphan niece Najma.

'It would be good to take the young girl who had such an appalling start to life, to the garden party and hopefully meet the Queen — although she is cheeky and would probably ask the Queen why she is wearing a hat!'