Comber woman recognised

Comber woman recognised

1 January 2019

A WORKING life dedicated to provide homes for those in need has earned an MBE for Comber woman Jacqueline Locke.

The chief executive of Connswater Housing for the last 20 years has been recognised for her services to social housing.

Jacqueline from Glenariff Drive has spent 30 years working in housing, with the majority of time in east Belfast where Connswater is based.

A former housing officer and manager, she was 31 when she took over the reins as CEO of Connswater Housing, which is now a Northern Ireland-wide organisation with 1,100 properties.

She told the Recorder: “I’m absolutely delighted and honoured with my MBE and I see it as a recognition of the work that Connswater Housing does and it’s for everyone associated with it.

“It’s been hard keeping the honour as a secret but it’s fantastic to get it. I don’t know who recommended me for it but I suspect that our chairman might have had something to do with it.”

Jacqueline, who has lived with her husband in Comber since 1999, has one adult daughter who recently left to work for three years in Dubai.

She knows only too well what having a home means for people having been raised in a “two up, two down, with an outside toilet” in east Belfast.

“I believe that having a home is the basis of everything, for good education, good health and prospects and Connswater House has grown considerably in my time.”