Sir Trevor McDonald "Stunned" at Queen's Birthday Honours

Sir Trevor McDonald

The Caribbean's-own Sir Trevor McDonald was delighted to be honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and rang home to Trinidad to thank the man who gave him his first break in radio. The rest is history, as they say.

Sir Trevor came to Britain to join the BBC World Service. He then made headlines in 1973 by moving to ITN independent television to become the network's first black reporter.

Along with Trevor Phillips, fellow broadcaster and London mayor hopeful, Sir Trevor is a much sought after television personality. Earlier this year he gained his own chat show on the digital channel ITV2 and he presents the weekly investigative news show Tonight on ITV.

Sir Trevor was "stunned but absolutely delighted," at his award, said The Times 12 June 1999.

"I just never thought it would happen to me. It's an incredible honour, far beyond what I deserve. I walked around with the letter for several days and kept reading it to find something on there that would show they had got it wrong. Practical jokes did enter my mind. I thought the only time I would allow myself to believe it was when the embargoed list was released and when I saw that I was on there I was very pleased."

Other media figures to be honoured included a sports presenter who waged a courageous fight against cancer, a woman's hour presenter, and an editor for services to the newspaper industry.