THE FORMER Governor of HMP Berwyn has received an OBE at Windsor Castle this week, presented by Princess Anne.

Nick Leader, 59, joined the Prison Service in September 1985. He joined the Wrexham prison in April 2019, before retiring in September last year.

In the New Years Honours list 2024 for public service, Nick was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The ceremony took place on Tuesday, April 23 at Windsor Castle.

The award is for helping effectively operationalise the largest public sector prison in the UK (HMP Berwyn).

Nick said: "I was fortunate to collect my award at Windsor Castle this week when the award was presented by Anne, Princess Royal.

The Leader: Nick attended the presentation with his wife, Sue.Nick attended the presentation with his wife, Sue. (Image: Nick Leader)

"It was a lovely day made better because I could attend with Sue, my wife, and we both had a great day.

"I am proud to have my time in the prison service recognised and know this was in the main part only possible because of the great support prison staff and my family have given me in all the prisons I have worked at."

During his almost 40-year career, he has Governed seven prisons; five in the public sector (HMP Reading, HMP Long Lartin, HMP Pentonville, HMP Whitemoor and HMP Berwyn) and two prisons whilst working for Sodexo Justice Services (HMP Peterborough, the only dual gender prison in the UK, and HMP Northumberland).

Following his nomination, Nick said: "There were many things I was proud of that staff achieved at Berwyn - it was better organised, safer, we achieved our operational capacity and most recently made significant improvements in a number of resettlement outcomes that were probably best illustrated by employment outcomes improving from 7 per cent in 2020 to about 30 per cent now. 

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"Now I’ve retired the memories of people I’ve worked will always be important to me.

"So often all people hear about is the difficulties staff have to deal with but it has been a great organisation to work for and remains so for people wanting to make a difference in peoples lives."

Nick now looks forward to enjoying his well-deserved retirement with his family.