Behind every great actor... an inspirational teacher

MIRFIELD-born actor Sir Patrick Stewart honoured the former teacher who set him on the path to acting as he was knighted by the Queen yesterday.

The star of stage and screen said English teacher Cecil Dormand, had encouraged him to perform and cast him in his play with adults.

Without the belief of the man with whom the actor shared a celebratory lunch, he would never be where he was today, he said.

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The award-winning performer is best known for his sci-fi roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Superhero X-men blockbuster movies and said he was honoured to be in the company of other great actor knights."

Sir Patrick said: "When I leave here I will be going to a luncheon that has been arranged and sitting on my right will be a man called Cecil Dormand who was my English teacher when I was a child.

"Although many people in my life and career have had great influence on me, without this one man, none of it would have happened.

"Because he was the one that put a copy of Shakespeare in my hand, he was the one who told me it was a play and not a dramatic poem, he was the one who said 'now get up on your feet and perform, this is a play, it's life'."

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Humberside Police Chief Constable Tim Hollis also received a CBE and Marjorie Oaten, from Hull, received an MBE.

The widow of a bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan paid tribute to her husband Olaf Schmid, 30, as she received his George Cross.

Christina Schmid dedicated the medal to the "sacrifice" shown by UK forces fighting there.