The Master Wheelwright's Award

This award was established by the Company as a high profile award that may be granted to an individual or team of individuals who meet the following criteria:

• being wheelchair users have attained pre-eminence in their field of endeavour and made a significant contribution to society, or who

• have excelled in a wheeled sport including but not limited to motor racing, motorcycle racing, cycle racing, carriage driving or the attainment of land speed record, or

• have made a significant contribution to the development or provision of mobility or access for disabled people utilising the wheel or other technical advancements in the UK or overseas, or

• are involved in industries, which use or rely upon the wheel and have achieved technological advances in design and manufacture of wheels or tyres or otherwise have shown innovation and commitment to the provision of mobility or access for disabled people.

Although nominated candidates are reviewed annually by the Master and his committee, due to the demanding criteria, the award may not be necessarily awarded on an annual basis.

The recipient in 2011 was Frank Gardner OBE, the BBC war correspondent who accepted the award at the annual banquet at the Mansion house on the 25th May.

Frank Gardner graduated from Exeter University with a degree in Arabic & Islamic Studies. There then followed a nine year career in banking as an investment banker with Saudi International Bank and then Robert Fleming Bank from 1986 until 1995. Bored of banking, he then took the plunge into journalism, working initially for BBC World TV. Spotting a gap in coverage he moved himself and his heavily pregnant wife to Dubai in 1997 to set up as a freelance Gulf stringer covering all 6 GCC countries and Yemen.

In 1999 Gardner was appointed BBC Middle East correspondent in charge of the bureau in Cairo, but travelled throughout the region. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Gardner focused on stories related to the so-called ‘War on Terror’, a phrase he always disliked, working to steer his audiences away from many of the prejudices and stereotypings that sprang up in the wake of those attacks.

On 6 June 2004, while reporting from a suburb of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Gardner was shot six times and seriously injured in an attack by al-Qaeda sympathisers. His colleague Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers was shot dead. He was left partly paralysed in the legs and dependent on a wheelchair for life.

After 14 operations, 7 months in hospital and months of rehabilitation he returned to reporting for the BBC in mid-2005, using a wheelchair or a frame. Frank was awarded the OBE in 2005.

(We are grateful to Gerald Sharpe Photography for supplying the photograph).

The recipient during 2010 was to be Sir Stirling Moss, however, shortly prior to the date of presentation Sir Stirling suffered leg injuries as a result of a fall and in consequence the date of the presentation has had to be postponed.

This Award has also been presented to the following in previous years to mark their achievements: