Harrogate woman who revived pantomime and served as mayor receives MBE

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Caroline Bayliss, a former councillor and mayor who is now vice-chairman of the organisation that organises the Harrogate flower shows, has received an MBE.

Ms Bayliss was awarded the accolade for services to the community in Harrogate and North Yorkshire by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle on September 30.

She was a Harrogate district councillor from 1983 until 2016, during which she served as the cabinet member for sport, tourism and culture on Harrogate Borough Council.

In 2005/06, she was Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate.

Since 2008, Ms Bayliss has been vice-chairman of the North of England Horticultural Society, which organises the spring and autumn flower shows at Harrogate and Newby Hall respectively.

She is a past chairman of Visit Harrogate, past chairman of Harrogate Theatre and has served on the Arts Council England. From 2015 to 2021, she was chairman of governors of Queen Margaret's School York.

When Harrogate Theatre was forced to close its doors on September 1, 1986, with debts of £85,000, Ms Bayliss took on the role of chairman of a new board and launched an appeal to save the repertory company and the theatre. She raised enough cash to pay off the theatre’s debts and personally underwrote the costs of staging the pantomime Dick Whittington.

The pantomime was so successful the theatre and its repertory company were able to reopen in 1987 with the aid of Arts Council England funding.

The pantomime, which she revived, is now a permanent fixture in Harrogate.

In October 2000, Ms Bayliss was asked by the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief to chair a fund-raising campaign to help finance the opening. of a new cancer unit at Harrogate District Hospital.

She helped raise £500,000 to build the Macmillan Dales Unit, which opened in December 2001 at the hospital.