Dr Ken Baugh, former deputy prime minister and minister of health, came in a wheelchair, while his former political colleague Ambassador Anthony Johnson had to be assisted by a soldier to the podium, but the two outstanding Jamaicans received sustained applause when they received the country’s fourth highest honour — the Order of Jamaica (OJ) — at the annual Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at King’s House in St Andrew yesterday.

Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer and Professor Renn Holness were also invested with OJs.

Ambassador Johnson was recognised for his outstanding service in the public and private sectors, especially in the foreign service, having served as Jamaica’s top diplomat in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dr Baugh, a former Member of Parliament and respected elder in the Jamaica Labour Party, was rewarded for his contribution to Parliament and work in medicine.

Professor Eldemire-Shearer got the national honour for her outstanding advocacy for senior citizens; and Professor Holness for outstanding work in neurosurgery.

Adam Stewart, CEO and deputy chairman of Sandals Resorts International and the ATL Group, which includes the

Jamaica Observer, was among a group of distinguished Jamaicans presented with the Order of Distinction (Commander class), for his outstanding service to tourism and the hotel sector.

Among the others receiving the CD were Justice Lennox Campbell; dub poet Allan ‘Mutaburaka’ Hope; businessman Anthony Chang; EG Hunter, head of the National Works Agency; Merrick Needham, protocol expert; Marlene Street Forest, head of the Jamaica Stock Exchange; and Ernest Smatt, hotelier.

Forty-six people were presented with the Order of Distinction (Officer class); 16 Jamaicans received the Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service; and 36 were presented with the Badge of Honour for Long and Faithful Service.