The Community Rescue Service (CRS) is a charitable search and rescue organisation operated by volunteers from communities across Northern Ireland and in the Queen’s New Year Honours the Regional Commander, Sean McCarry, from Co. Antrim, has been made an OBE (Order of the British Empire) acknowledging his work with the charity.

It is the only accredited Lowland Rescue search and rescue organisation in Northern Ireland and holds full membership of the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue (ALSAR). CRS provides all aspects of search and rescue falling under the remit of Lowland Rescue including ground and covers inland waters and rivers.

As Belfast Live reports Mr McCarry said, “For me it is very simple - this is a recognition not of myself but of the community who support the rescue service, the many volunteers, their families, for those, past and present, who have been involved, who built up this organisation."

The CRS which was founded in 2007, has volunteers across five districts in Northern Ireland. It responds to more than 400 missing person and emergency incidents every year, with members volunteering more than 90,000 hours of their time.

Mr McCarry added "We are so busy, it is not the type of thing that would ever come to my mind that this would happen. I am still in shock”