Well-known local medical man, Dr. Arabinda Palit, has been honoured in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours list for his services to medicine.

Sixty-five-year-old Dr. Palit, who retired in May after many years as the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust's consultant paediatrician based at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, was awarded the OBE in the honours list announced at the weekend.

Dr. Palit, of Hillside, Narberth, first came to the United Kingdom as a newly qualified doctor in 1962 when his uncle, who was at the Indian High Commission in London, funded his boat passage and suggested he came for a year to see some of the world.

"I did really intend to only stay for 12 months, but of course you can never plan these things," Dr. Palit told the Observer this week.

Dr. Palit began his medical career in Wrexham and later moved on to Cardiff and then Liverpool, before he made a conscious decision to return to work in Wales when the job of a consultant paediatrician in the former county of Dyfed came up.

Firstly the job was based at Carmarthen and then at Withybush, with Dr. Palit and his wife, Jackie, opting to live in Narberth.

"Not only was it central to both hospitals, but it's also the best place in Pembrokeshire!" smiled Dr. Palit

Dr. and Mrs. Palit have two daughters, Shumana, who runs a delicatessen in Aberystwyth, and Shumita, who is in textile design in Nottingham.

Dr. Palit admitted he had mixed feelings about the honour.

"Naturally I am very pleased, but I am also somewhat embarrassed," he admitted.

"After all, I have being doing a job that I not only love, but one that I have been reasonably well paid for over the years!" he smiled. "To get something on top of that was a total surprise. Other people work just as hard, if not harder, without any recognition.

"It's a great honour, but a bit embarrassing; I've had to sneak in and out of Narberth all weekend!"