A GRANDMOTHER who worked to change the image of the 'Essex Girl' has been honoured by the Queen.
Daphne Field, 72, from Galleywood, wrote a book about the Essex girl stereotype and dedicated much of her spare time to working with women's groups across the county.
On December 29, Daphne discovered the Queen had chosen her in the New Year Honours list, awarding her the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to charity and the community in Chelmsford.
"I was naturally delighted," said Daphne. "I was very, very flattered, as you can imagine because you think, 'oh my gosh, there must be other people who are far worthier than me'."
Daphne has an idea as to who the group of people who nominated her were, but prior to finding out about her award she thought her husband Michael suspected her of less noble actions.
"Looking back, I began to wonder if my husband thought I was having an affair because he kept asking me questions about what I had been doing," she laughed.
It turns out that Daphne's husband was informing her nominators about different aspects of her work.
"You have to do your homework on a person and you obviously don't want them to know," said Daphne, who is on the board of the Essex Women's Advisory Group.
"How it really started was that I had been the vice-chairman of the Prince's Trust in Essex and we became very aware that many of the girls we were helping were very much affected by the 'Essex Girl' image," she said.
"I'm old enough and ugly enough to cope with it but some of the other, brighter girls were moaning that they came from Essex. We wanted to say 'be proud of where you come from and have pride in yourselves'."
After setting up an endowment fund with the Essex Community Foundation, the group raised enough money to start distributing funding to a variety of groups such as women's refuges and Girl Guides.
Then a media storm kicked off two years ago when Daphne, who has a daughter and twin grandchildren, wrote a book of limericks about the Essex Girl.
"It was amazing really," she said. "There was a little piece in the Chronicle and the following day I had a telephone call at 6am and I jumped out of bed and I was asked if I would do a radio interview at 6.45am.
"That day I did 17 radio interviews and four television interviews, all because we talked about Essex Girls – that's what amazed me."
Since then she has worked tirelessly to improve women-of-all-ages' perception of the Essex Girl.
"I had a lovely text from my granddaughter Tara and an e-mail as well saying she was very proud," said Daphne. "It was lovely. It's very humbling actually."
