Midlander of the Year
Encyclopedia
Midlander of the Year is an annual
award, recognising people deemed to have "made an outstanding contribution to the social, sporting, political
or cultural
life" of the English Midlands
.
The original Midlander of the Year award was set up by the local brewer
s, Mitchells & Butlers in 1969 and sponsored by Bass
until 1998.
Lately, it has been awarded by the regional television company, ITV
Central, who (as Central Television) re-launched the scheme in April 2001 with their news programmes profiling nominees throughout the year. Viewers vote to determine the sub-regional winners in the Central News West, East and South areas. A panel of judges choose the overall winner from that shortlist as well as selecting nine special category winners.
The 2001 judging panel comprised Carlton representatives, leaders from industry, education, regional government and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners which include the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post
, Burton Daily Mail, Century 106 (East Midlands), Coventry Evening Telegraph
, Express & Star
(Wolverhampton
), Oxford Mail
, The Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent
), Shropshire Star
and Worcester Evening News. The panel was chaired by Roger Cadbury, Carlton's regional advisory council chairman.
The judging panel comprised Carlton representatives, leaders from enterprise, education, arts and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners, which include the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Wolverhampton Express & Star, The Stoke Sentinel, Worcester Evening News, Shropshire Star, 100.7 Heart FM
and 106 Century FM. The panel was chaired by Mich Stevenson OBE, himself a winner of the Enterprise Midlander of the Year Award in 2001.
The judging panel comprised ITV Central representatives, leaders from industry, the arts, education and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners who are The Birmingham Post, Birmingham Evening Mail, The Sentinel (Stoke on Trent), Coventry Evening Telegraph, Shropshire Star, Worcester Evening News, 100.7 Heart FM (Birmingham), Trent FM (Nottingham), Ram FM (Derby), Leicester Sound and Fox FM (Oxford). The judging panel was chaired by Mich Stephenson OBE, a member of ITV Central's Regional Advisory Council.
Year
A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. For an observer on Earth, this corresponds to the period it takes the Sun to complete one course throughout the zodiac along the ecliptic....
award, recognising people deemed to have "made an outstanding contribution to the social, sporting, political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
or cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
life" of the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
.
The original Midlander of the Year award was set up by the local brewer
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
s, Mitchells & Butlers in 1969 and sponsored by Bass
Bass (beer)
The Bass Brewery was founded as a brewery in 1777 by William Bass in Burton upon Trent, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, which was once the highest selling beer in the UK...
until 1998.
Lately, it has been awarded by the regional television company, ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Central, who (as Central Television) re-launched the scheme in April 2001 with their news programmes profiling nominees throughout the year. Viewers vote to determine the sub-regional winners in the Central News West, East and South areas. A panel of judges choose the overall winner from that shortlist as well as selecting nine special category winners.
Overall
Previous overall winners include:- 1989 - Sir Alec JeffreysAlec JeffreysSir Alec John Jeffreys, FRS is a British geneticist, who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used all over the world in forensic science to assist police detective work, and also to resolve paternity and immigration disputes...
- 1992 - Phil DrabblePhil DrabblePhilip Percy Cooper Drabble OBE was an English countryman, author and television presenter. Raised in the Black Country, he later lived in – and wrote mostly about – the countryside of north Worcestershire and at Abbots Bromley in south Staffordshire, where he created a nature reserve.-Early...
- 1995 - Jasper CarrottJasper CarrottJasper Carrott OBE is a British comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.-Early life:...
- 2001 - John Towers
- 2002 - Stephen WestabyStephen WestabyProfessor Stephen Westaby is a heart surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England. He won the award of Midlander of the Year in 2002....
(heart surgeon at John Radcliffe HospitalJohn Radcliffe HospitalThe John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England.It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. As such, it is a well-developed centre of medical research. It also incorporates the Medical School of the University of Oxford....
) - 2003 - Martin Johnson
2001 categories
The nine special category winners for 2001 were:- Arts: Peter Tod (theatre director, Birmingham HippodromeBirmingham HippodromeThe Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End...
). - Entertainment: Meera SyalMeera SyalMeera Syal MBE is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No...
(writer and actress). - Sportsman: Martin Johnson (rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
captain of Leicester TigersLeicester TigersLeicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...
, England and the last British LionsBritish and Irish LionsThe British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
tour). - Sportswoman: Ellen MacArthurEllen MacArthurDame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, DBE is an English sailor, up until 2009, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in West Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. She is best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman. On 7 February 2005 she broke the world record for the fastest solo...
(round-the-world yachtswoman). - Business: Perween WarsiPerween WarsiPerween Warsi, CBE, Founder and Chief Executive, S&A Foods-Biography:Warsi was born in India in 1956 and moved to the United Kingdom in 1975.Perween began her business making ethnic finger foods from her kitchen...
(chief executive, S&A Foods). - Enterprise: Mich Stevenson (chairman, Nottingham Galleries of Justice, National Ice Arena and Nottingham Waterside).
- Community: Rita PatelRita PatelRita Patel is a former One Day International cricketer who represented India. She played one One Day Internationals.-References:...
(Peepul Centre in LeicesterLeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
). - Public Service: Malcolm WalkerMalcolm WalkerMalcolm Walker, born at Mexborough, Yorkshire, on 14 October 1933 and died at Retford, Nottinghamshire, on 2 September 1986, was a cricketer who played for Somerset in first-class matches between 1952 and 1958.-Biography:...
(police officerPolice officerA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
, killed in service). - Lifetime: UB40UB40UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...
(for services to popular musicPopular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and the region).
The 2001 judging panel comprised Carlton representatives, leaders from industry, education, regional government and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners which include the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...
, Burton Daily Mail, Century 106 (East Midlands), Coventry Evening Telegraph
Coventry Evening Telegraph
The Coventry Telegraph is a local English tabloid newspaper. Originally called The Midland Daily Telegraph, it was founded in 1891 by William Isaac Iliffe as Coventry's first daily newspaper, a four-page broadsheet newspaper originally sold for a half penny...
, Express & Star
Express & Star
The Express & Star is an evening newspaper based in Wolverhampton, England, published Monday to Saturday in nine different editions covering the Black Country, Birmingham and the wider West Midlands area from Tamworth to Kidderminster. It as widely perceived as being moderately right-wing...
(Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
), Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid The Oxford Times.-History:...
, The Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
), Shropshire Star
Shropshire Star
The Shropshire Star is a regional newspaper covering the whole of Shropshire, plus parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, the Llangollen area and northern Powys in the United Kingdom.-About:The editor is Keith Harrison....
and Worcester Evening News. The panel was chaired by Roger Cadbury, Carlton's regional advisory council chairman.
2003 categories
- Sporting: Paula RadcliffePaula RadcliffePaula Jane Radcliffe, MBE is an English long-distance runner. She is the current women's world record holder in the marathon with her time of 2:15:25 hours...
, AthleteAthletics (track and field)Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
(for services to international sport) - Lifetime: Robert PlantRobert PlantRobert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
, MusicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
ian (for services to music and young people) - Birmingham University Lifelong Learning: Professor Tim BrighouseTim BrighouseSir Timothy Robert Peter Brighouse is a British educator, and was, until 2007, Schools Commissioner for London.-Biography:He was educated at grammar schools in Loughborough and Lowestoft and St Catherine's College, Oxford University. He began his career as a schoolteacher, becoming a deputy head...
, retired Chief Education Officer, Birmingham City CouncilBirmingham City CouncilThe Birmingham City Council is the body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local authority in the United Kingdom with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 Birmingham...
(for services to educational standards) - Community: Michelle LewisMichelle LewisMichelle Lewis is a singer/songwriter who has released two solo albums.-References:*http://www.michellelewis.com...
MBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, Wheelchair Athlete (for services to charitable fundraising) - Cultural: David BintleyDavid BintleyDavid Bintley, CBE, is a former English ballet dancer, the current artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.- About :...
CBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, Artistic Director, Birmingham Royal BalletBirmingham Royal BalletBirmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
(for services to the arts) - Innovation: Professor Mike Topping, inventor and academic (for services to innovation and people with disabilities)
- Young Business: Karl GeorgeKarl GeorgeKarl Curtis George is an American jazz trumpeter.Early in his career George played with McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Cecil Lee. Later in the 1930s he spent time in the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and then in the orchestras of Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton...
, Director, Andersons KBS (for services to business and the black community) - Rural Enterprise: Izzy Warren-Smith, Senior Lecturer, Rural Economics and Management, Harper Adams University CollegeHarper Adams University CollegeHarper Adams University College is a higher education institution located close to the village of Edgmond , in Shropshire, England. It is the UK's leading specialist provider of higher education for the agri-food chain and rural sector....
(for services to the rural economy) - Business Leadership: Tony Sealey, Chair, West Midlands Ethnic Minority Business Forum (for services to the leadership of black and minority enterprise)
- Arts Leadership: Professor Ray Cowell Vice Chancellor, Nottingham Trent University (for services to the development of arts in the East Midlands)
The judging panel comprised Carlton representatives, leaders from enterprise, education, arts and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners, which include the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Wolverhampton Express & Star, The Stoke Sentinel, Worcester Evening News, Shropshire Star, 100.7 Heart FM
100.7 Heart FM
Heart West Midlands is a radio station based in Birmingham, England, as part of the Heart Network, with a regional license to broadcast to the West Midlands...
and 106 Century FM. The panel was chaired by Mich Stevenson OBE, himself a winner of the Enterprise Midlander of the Year Award in 2001.
2004 categories
- East Midlands Development Agency Innovation: Professor Sir Peter MansfieldPeter MansfieldSir Peter Mansfield, FRS, , is a British physicist who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging . The Nobel Prize was shared with Paul Lauterbur, who also contributed to the development of MRI...
from Nottingham UniversityUniversity of NottinghamThe University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
for services to medical science - Community: Dr John SentamuJohn SentamuJohn Tucker Mugabi Sentamu is the 97th Archbishop of York, Metropolitan of the province of York, and Primate of England. He is the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.-Life and career:...
, the Bishop of BirminghamBishop of BirminghamThe Bishop of Birmingham heads the Church of England diocese of Birmingham, in the Province of Canterbury, in England.The diocese covers the North West of the historical county of Warwickshire and has its see in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, where the seat of the diocese is located at the...
, for services to community relations - Literary (sponsored by Birmingham UniversityUniversity of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
): Clare MorrallClare MorrallClare Morrall is an English novelist. Born in Exeter, she has lived mainly in Birmingham, where she worked for many years as a music teacher. She achieved sudden success with her first published novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, which reached the shortlist for the 2003 Booker Prize. Her...
(Birmingham) for services to literature & publishing - Advantage West MidlandsAdvantage West Midlands-Advantage West Midlands – Regional Development Agency:Advantage West Midlands was established in 1999 as one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England. RDAs were created by the UK Government to drive sustainable economic development and social and physical regeneration through a...
Entrepreneur: Shaun Hill (LudlowLudlowLudlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Welsh border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...
, ShropshireShropshireShropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
) for services to enterprise and food - Business: Clyde Pile (Birmingham) for services to developing the Afro-Caribbean business community
- Courageous: Sarah Brasil (Leicester) for saving lives in the face of great danger
- Entertainment: Ozzy OsbourneOzzy OsbourneJohn Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
(Birmingham) for services to music and entertainment - Conservation: Molly BadhamMolly BadhamMolly Winifred Badham MBE was a co-founder of Twycross Zoo. She trained the chimpanzees who appeared on the Brooke Bond PG Tips television advertisements in the 1960s to the 1980s....
MBE, (Twycross ZooTwycross ZooTwycross Zoo is an zoo near the village of Twycross in Leicestershire, close to the border of Warwickshire . The zoo claims the largest collections of monkeys and apes in the World, and in 2006 re-launched itself as "Twycross Zoo – The World Primate Centre."The zoo attracts around 500,000 visitors...
, LeicestershireLeicestershireLeicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
/WarwickshireWarwickshireWarwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
) for services to conservation of endangered species - Sporting: Henrietta Knight and Terry BiddlecombeTerry BiddlecombeTerry Biddlecombe was an English National Hunt racing jockey in the 1960s and 1970s. He was Champion Jockey in 1965, 1966 and 1969.-Career:...
(WantageWantageWantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....
, OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
) for services to horse racingHorse racingHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
The judging panel comprised ITV Central representatives, leaders from industry, the arts, education and community groups, and senior staff from the award's media partners who are The Birmingham Post, Birmingham Evening Mail, The Sentinel (Stoke on Trent), Coventry Evening Telegraph, Shropshire Star, Worcester Evening News, 100.7 Heart FM (Birmingham), Trent FM (Nottingham), Ram FM (Derby), Leicester Sound and Fox FM (Oxford). The judging panel was chaired by Mich Stephenson OBE, a member of ITV Central's Regional Advisory Council.