Pride of Britain Awards
Encyclopedia
The Pride of Britain Awards is an annual event in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, honouring ordinary people who have acted bravely or extraordinarily in challenging situations.

The awards were founded by Peter Willis, an associate editor of the Daily Mirror, under the editorship of Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....

. The first Pride of Britain Awards were held at the Dorchester Hotel
Dorchester Hotel
The Dorchester is a luxury hotel in London, opened on 18 April 1931. It is situated on Park Lane in Mayfair, overlooking Hyde Park.The Dorchester was created by the famous builder Sir Robert McAlpine and the managing director of Gordon Hotels Ltd, Sir Frances Towle, who shared a vision of creating...

, Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in May 1999.

The awards are televised on 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...

 and hosted by Carol Vorderman
Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman MBE is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008. In September 2011 she became a co-anchor of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women....

. The judging panel is made up of celebrities and well-known figures from a range of backgrounds, and has included multiple appearances by Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...

, Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....

, Fiona Phillips
Fiona Phillips
Fiona Phillips is an English journalist, broadcaster and television presenter.-Early life:Phillips was born in Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 1961. Her grandparents ran the Duke's Head pub in Church Street St. Paul's. Phillips attended Kingsmead Primary School...

, Miriam Stoppard
Miriam Stoppard
Miriam Stoppard OBE , is a British doctor, author, television presenter and agony aunt.- Early life and medical career :...

, Sir John Stevens
John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington
John Arthur Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington KStJ QPM DL FRSA was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2000 until 2005. From 1991 to 1996, he was Chief Constable of Northumbria Police before being appointed one of HM Inspectors of Constabulary in September 1996...

, Sir Magdi Yacoub
Magdi Yacoub
Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, FRS , is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial College London.Yacoub's major achievements may be summarised:1. Established Heart Transplantation in UK and became leading transplant surgeon in the world....

, Richard Wallace
Richard Wallace (journalist)
Richard Wallace is the current editor of British newspaper the Daily Mirror.Wallace began his Fleet Street career working for the Daily Mail and The Sun. In 1990 he joined the Daily Mirror. During Piers Morgan's editorship of the paper he became show business editor before becoming head of news in...

, Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes is an Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster. He is known for his work on UK and Irish television, notably presenting GMTV and This Morning. He is married to TV presenter Ruth Langsford.-Education:...

 and Ms. Dynamite
Ms. Dynamite
Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley , who performs as Ms. Dynamite, is a double BRIT Award and three time MOBO Awards winning UK garage, R&B and hip hop singer and rapper.-Biography:...

, chaired from 1999 to 2004 by Piers Morgan and from 2005 to 2006 by Peter Willis.

The awards are organised in association with the Daily Mirror, Littlewoods
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...

, 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...

 and The Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales to help young people. They run a range of training programmes, provide mentoring support and offer financial grants to build the confidence and motivation of disadvantaged young people...

.

Winners of the Pride of Britain Lifetime Achievement Award have included; Peter Benenson
Peter Benenson
Peter Benenson was an English lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International . In 2001, Benenson received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement.-Biography:...

, founder of the human rights organisation Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, Chad Varah
Chad Varah
Reverend Prebendary Edward Chad Varah, CH, CBE was a British Anglican priest. He is best remembered as the founder of The Samaritans, established in 1953 as the world's first crisis hotline organisation, offering non-religious telephone support to those contemplating suicide.-Life:Varah was born...

, founder of the charity group the Samaritans
Samaritans (charity)
Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, often through their telephone helpline. The name comes from the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, though the organisation...

, Alec Jeffreys
Alec Jeffreys
Sir 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...

, who pioneered DNA fingerprinting, and Nicholas Winton
Nicholas Winton
Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE is a British humanitarian who organised the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport. Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe...

, who saved many Jewish children from the Holocaust.

External links

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