A FORMER Shaw man received the British Empire Medal in Prime Minister Theresa May’s resignation honours.
During his time working at the Buckinghamshire stately home, Graham has cooked for royalty, political heavyweights and celebrities.
Graham, a former pupil at Buckstones Primary and Crompton House, has served five prime ministers, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
And he has cooked for and met The Queen, along with United States presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
Graham had previously spent 13 years in the Royal Air Force where he had a number of VIP catering roles including providing food for dinner parties for an air commodore at his chateau on the French/Belgium border.
He heads a team of three chefs at Chequers where he has been since 2002, apart from a two-year stint when he was seconded to nearby Dorneywood, country residence of the chancellor of the exchequer – it was Alistair Darling at that time.
Graham, who is married to Jayne and has three sons, has never forgotten his roots, even though he left Oldham many years ago.
He remains an avid Oldham Athletic fan and still gets to watch them as often as possible, especially when they are in and around the London area.
Graham began watching Latics in 1984-85 after Latics gave free tickets to pupils at Crompton House.
He was also at Wembley to see Latics play in the final of the Littlewoods Cup, though he selects the 6-0 semi-final win against West Ham as his favourite match.
But for the following year’s promotion to the first division, which became the Premier League, he was no longer a regular having signed up for the RAF.