SHE is the first Scottish sportswoman to be so honoured, but Scotland’s newest dame, Katherine Grainger, is unlikely to use her title, according to her parents.

Rowing gold medallist in 2012 in London, Grainger became the most-decorated female British Olympic athlete ever on winning silver at Rio, narrowly missing out on gold in the women’s double sculls with Vicky Thornley.

Her damehood is the top honour of seven awarded to Scottish Olympians and Paralympians at the end of this Olympic year. Registered blind sprinter Libby Clegg and her running partner Chris Clarke, cyclist Katie Archibald, parasport thrower Jo Butterfield, paralympic cyclist Karen Darke and wheelchair tennis World No 1 Gordon Reid were all awarded MBEs.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Having cheered Katherine Grainger on in successive Olympic Games, most recently in Rio this summer, I could not be more pleased to see Scotland’s most successful female Olympian honoured with a damehood.

“It’s equally great to see the incredible achievements of many of our Olympic and Paralympic stars recognized with well-deserved honours.”

Grainger’s mother Liz said: “She is very down to earth and modest, so I doubt she will want to be called Dame Katherine or whatever.

“We always said to her that if there was to be anything in the honours list not to tell us in advance, to tell us at Christmas then we wouldn’t be tempted to tell people or anything.

“So, in fact she waited until we had the whole family together and then told us, so we haven’t known for terribly long but it was very exciting.

“She has battled down barriers for most of her career, which I think is what is being acknowledged now that she was in so many firsts.

“First world champion back to back, first under 25s, first everything like that. I think she is leaving women’s rowing in a very strong position.”

Other sports people honoured included Sam Morshead, the popular former general manager of Perth Racecourse, who gains an MBE, and Rhona Elliot, founder of the MS Borders Racing Club that works for people with multiple sclerosis.

Across Scottish society, a total of 98 people have been honoured. Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal was one of three officers awarded the Queen’s Police Medal. She led the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, launched in October 2014, whose work has led to an overall reduction of threat and harm to the public, greater investigative focus on offenders and greater management and control of registered and non-registered sex offenders.

Other Scots awarded MBEs include television chef Tony Singh and Josh Littlejohn, the co-founder of homeless charity, Social Bite which has received backing from various high-profile figures such as George Clooney and Leonardo di Caprio.

Littlejohn said: “I’m honoured to receive this award in recognition for my work with Social Bite.

“I would like to dedicate it to the hundreds of homeless people Social Bite works with in Scotland who are marginalised from society and have no stake in the economic system.”

Former Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC is one of four Scots made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Thirty Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) were confirmed and 13 people will receive an OBE, Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Sturgeon added: “Every one of us in Scotland should take pride in and inspiration from those who have gone above and beyond in serving their local communities and whose achievements are rightly being celebrated today.”