Laurels for Scots sporting heroes and recognition for those who serve in the background. Voice of Rugby rewarded

McLaren, who is commentating at the Rugby World Cup in South Africa

for BBC Radio Five, is the doyen of rugby broadcasters and the soft

lowland tongue of his beloved Borderland is as well known in Cape Town

and Dunedin as it is in Kelso or Dunfermline.

In his youth, McLaren was a promising player and played at centre,

stand-off and, latterly, wing-forward for his home town of Hawick. He

turned out in a Scottish international trial before his playing days

were cruelly curtailed by illness.

It was in a Mansfield Park encounter with Glasgow Academicals in 1948

that he first felt the symptoms of what was later diagnosed as pulmonary

tuberculosis.

Doctors told him that he would spend four years in a sanatorium with

no guarantee that he would recover. However, he was treated with a

revolutionary new drug and made a full recovery after spending 20 months

in hospital.

As a reporter on the Hawick Express, McLaren made his commentating

debut on BBC radio at a South Africa v South of Scotland match at Hawick

in 1952. Seven years later, he made the transition from radio to

television and he has been the BBC's front-line commentator ever since.

The corporation offered him full-time employment, mixing rugby with

athletics, but Bill had by that time trained as a PE teacher and the

prospect of full-time television work did not appeal.

In his capacity as a PE teacher and rugby coach in Hawick's primary

schools, McLaren has seen many of his proteges go on to international

success.

The former Scotland captain Colin Deans, centre Jim Renwick and 1990

Grand Slam try scorer Tony Stanger, are just three of the McLaren old

boys who have made the grade at international level.

Meanwhile, there will be further celebration in Scottish rugby ranks

today as SRU president Ken Smith has been made a CBE.

Born in Edinburgh, he played for both Kelso and Watsonians, going on

to win 18 international caps. He moved into the union's administration

after acting as tour manager to New Zealand in 1981.

* J. Duncan Lowe, who is made a Companion of the Order of the Bath,

has been Crown Agent since 1991. He was previously procurator-fiscal of

Lothian and Borders. Educated at Hamilton Academy and Glasgow

University, he joined the procurator-fiscal service at Kilmarnock and

was assistant fiscal in Glasgow from 1980-83. He became deputy Crown

Agent in 1984.

* Mr Timothy (Robin) Cutler, CBE, has been director general of the

Forestry Commission since 1990. Born in India, and educated at Banff

Academy and Aberdeen University, Mr Cutler, 60, served with the colonial

forest service in Kenya, before working in forestry in New Zealand from

1964 to 1990.

* Mr Tom McCool, CBE, has been chief executive of the Scottish

Vocational Education Council (Scotvec) since 1986 and was formerly

depute director of education and divisional education officer for

Strathclyde Regional Council. Educated at Glasgow University and

Jordanhill College of Education, Mr McCool taught in several secondary

schools before entering educational administration in 1971.

* Mrs Rosemary McKenna, the president of the Convention of Scottish

Local Authorities and a Labour councillor in Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, is

made a CBE. Mr James Braid, a councillor in Fife, is awarded an OBE,

while Mr Ian Frain, a councillor in Kincardine and Deeside, is made a

MBE.

* Mr Charles Tyrrell, CBE, is a former chairman of the National Trust

for Scotland. Mr Tyrell, 64, farmed near Moffat in Dumfriesshire before

his appointment to the chair of the National Trust in July 1989. He

retired in April, and now lives in Suffolk with his wife, Lady Caroline.

* Mr Ernie Walker, CBE, past chairman of the Health Education Board

for Scotland, is probably better known as the former secretary of the

Scottish Football Association. Previously awarded the OBE, he has

recently been appointed to head a think-tank to guide the future of

Scottish football.

* Judith Weir, CBE, has achieved national prominence as a composer of

operas. Born in Aberdeenshire, she was educated in London and Cambridge,

and taught in Glasgow University's music department from 1979-82. She

served as composer in residence at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music

and Drama from 1988-91.

* Mr John Ashworth, OBE, is regarded as one of the main players in the

Scottish whisky industry and is chairman of Renfrewshire Enterprise.

Born in Yorkshire, he moved to Scotland in 1974 to head up Chivas

Brothers' operation in Paisley, before becoming managing director of its

parent group, Seagram Distillers.

* Mary Rose Caden, OBE, principal teacher of guidance at St

Augustine's High in Edinburgh, has been active in promoting teachers'

rights and conditions for many years. She is a former national president

of the Educational Institute of Scotland and is convener of the General

Teaching Council.

* Mr Neil Galbraith, OBE, has been director of education with the

Western Isles Council for the past 16 years. Born in Govan, Mr

Galbraith, 54, was educated and taught in Glasgow before moving to the

Hebrides to become principal history teacher at the Nicolson Institute

in Stornoway in 1968.

* Mrs Gillian Morbey, OBE, is now director of the organisation she

helped to set up, Sense Scotland, the national deafblind and rubella

association. A nurse, Mrs Morbey is married with two grown-up children.

* Mr David P Webster, OBE, is former chairman of the Commonwealth

Games Council for Scotland, and still serves on its executive, having

led the Scottish team to Victoria last summer. He is a former Scottish

weightlifting record holder and wrestler.

* Mr Fordyce Maxwell, MBE, is a former Herald columnist who now writes

for the Scotsman. He worked on a farm for several years before beginning

his career in journalism with the Farming News.

* Mrs Catherine Cunningham, MBE, is a laundry worker and seamstress at

Strathcarron Hospice in Denny. She was originally taken on as a

volunteer cleaner but so impressed the matron that she was invited to

take on her present post. Mrs Cunningham, 56, of Fankerton, has also

worked with Oxfam in a voluntary capacity.

* Michael Hart, MBE, is director of the Edinburgh International Jazz

Festival. Mr Hart, 61, began his music career as drummer with the band

of clarinettist Sandy Brown, making his first broadcast when he was 17.

* Peter Haining, MBE, of Dumbarton, has become Scottish rowing's most

successful competitor. At the 1993 world championships in Prague he

became the first Briton ever to win the lightweight sculls title, and

was only the third person to achieve a successful defence of that title

at Indianapolis last year.

* Mr Donald Ritchie, MBE, is Britain's most prolific breaker of world

long-distance athletics records. His exploits include world bests on the

track at 30, 50, 100 and 150 miles.

* Mr James Slater, MBE, is honoured for services to the fishing

industry. After 40 years at sea as a skipper, Mr Slater has been

chairman of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association, based in

Fraserburgh, since 1990.

* Mr David Whittick, MBE, has been involved with Riding for the

Disabled at its St Mungo Group in Glasgow since the early 1980s,

initially as a helper at classes and a fund-raiser.

*TWO of the three new Privy Councillors are Scots. David Maclean, MP

for Penrith and the Border, is a junior Minister at the Home Office.

Lord Strathclyde, a former Scottish Office spokesman on agriculture and

fisheries, is now Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords.