The woman responsible for revolutionising the Croydon Music Festival has been made a Member of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Helen Watkins-Snart, a singing teacher from Purley, is responsible for rescuing the festival which has been running since 1912 but was in its death throes with barely 100 performers when she joined the committee in 1990.

She became chairwoman of the committee of volunteers in 1991 but was forced to step down in 2006 when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

During her 15 years as chairwoman, she increased the number of participants from a mere 100 entries to over 2,000 with people participating from as far afield as Ireland and China.

She also expanded the scope of the festival from just classical music to incorporate speech and drama, western dance, asian dance and music and jazz, rock and pop.

She was nominated for a Croydon Champions award in 2005.

She said: “When I heard about the honour I was – well there is no other word for it – gobsmacked.

“I was amazed that people had been scheming behind my back and thought it was incredible that they should do that for me.

“I would never have been able to do it without all the wonderful volunteers who help out with the festival.

“Festivals are there to motivate, encourage and educate performers and give them the opportunity to experience an audience as well as get constructive feedback from the adjudicators.”

She was put nominated by a fellow volunteer Geoffrey Shaw, who is also on the committee and has helped out with adjudicating at the festival.

He said: “When Helen took over, the festival was dead, it is now one of the major festivals in the country.

“She has been incredible, an extraordinary person.

“We could not believe it when we heard she had got the honour.”

The festival runs annually over five weekends in April and May.

Another Croydon resident John Henry Kellas was awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to the accountancy profession in his role as chairman of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

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