Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scots Awards

The Scot­tish busi­ness­man, entre­pre­neur and phil­an­thropist, Sir Tom Hunter, won the 2011 John­nie Walk­er® Blue Label™ Great Scot Award in a glitzy cer­e­mo­ny held at Bois­dale of Canary Wharf. Sir Hunter fol­lowed pre­vi­ous year’s win­ner, the illus­tri­ous painter Jack Vet­tri­ano, accept­ing his award at the cli­max of a star-stud­ded evening in Canary Wharf’s grand­est venue. Scotland’s first ever home-grown bil­lion­aire is famous for pledg­ing to give £1 bil­lion to good caus­es and estab­lish­ing The Hunter Foun­da­tion in 1998.

Ear­li­er in the evening, singer-song­writer Annie Lennox OBE accept­ed the Great Scot Award for Char­i­ty. The for­mer Eury­th­mics front­woman, whose music has sold over 80 mil­lion records world­wide, is notable for her tire­less work in rais­ing mon­ey and aware­ness for a num­ber of char­i­ties includ­ing Oxfam, Green­peace and Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al. Break­fast TV favourite Lor­raine Kel­ly won the Great Scot Award for Enter­tain­ment.

The Award was pre­sent­ed by Andrew Neil and recog­nised Mrs Kelly’s ser­vices to broad­cast­ing over four decades. Dur­ing this peri­od, she has helped to launch GMTV and pro­vid­ed enter­tain­ment for mil­lions of British view­ers. Rac­ing leg­end Sir Jack­ie Stew­art, the orig­i­nal win­ner of the Great Scot Award, pre­sent­ed golfer Sam Tor­rance OBE with the Great Scot Award for Sport. Sam Tor­rance has rep­re­sent­ed Europe in the Ryder Cup and was the inspi­ra­tional non-play­ing cap­tain when the team regained the tro­phy at The Bel­fry in 2002. The Great Scot Life­time Achieve­ment Award was award­ed to leg­endary song­writer Bill Mar­tin. In a remark­able career that has spanned over five decades, Bill Mar­tin has writ­ten time­less hits for such dis­tin­guished names as Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley.