A retired social worker who has taught children guitar for more than 20 years, and whose pupils have played Glastonbury. A boxing coach in Earlsfield whose pupils include an Olympic silver medallist, and whose brother is Sadiq Khan. A scout leader on the Putney towpath whose group’s main fundraiser has been a Boat Race Day barbecue. A man who was threatened and injured while helping to delay two suspected parcel thieves. A woman who began by taking treats to hospital nurses in the first lockdown and now runs a charity that sends surplus food to shelters and community kitchens.
All five are among the 47 people and groups shortlisted for this year’s Wandsworth Civic Awards. The council says the nominations celebrate “local heroes from every corner of the borough”.
The winners will be named at a ceremony at the Civic Suite on Wandsworth High Street on Thursday 26 November. The council has called the awards its highest honour. Tickets are free but limited, and everyone going needs one; they can be booked on the Civic Awards website. Unlike past years, winners will not be told in advance.
The 49 entries come from 47 finalists across 11 categories, from Bravery to Young Person of the Year, because two people are up twice. The council’s list of past winners goes back to 2011, and two of last year’s winners are back: Janneke Diemel, who won Environmental Hero and launched the charity Critical Support, and Fozia Riaz, who won a Community Champion award. The man who delayed the suspects is Benson Xala, shortlisted for the Bravery Award.
Putney shortlisters
In Putney, Chris Hayes is shortlisted for his part in 5th Putney Sea Scouts, where his entry says he has spent more than 30 years. In 2023 he was its Scouter-in-Charge, and the Boat Race Day barbecue at its towpath hut by the Beverley Brook footbridge was its main fundraiser of the year, which the group said had allowed it to survive as one of the last remaining scout groups in Putney.
William Ankumu is shortlisted for nearly 20 years with Chelsea FC’s Premier League Kicks programme on the Ashburton Estate, where his entry says he joined as a participant before becoming a coach. The Premier League has reported that the free sessions have run on the estate for more than 10 years, and the council lists them at Ashburton Youth Club on Westleigh Avenue, SW15.
Other finalists have Putney connections. Manuel Button runs Wandsworth Community Transport, which offers door-to-door trips and Shopmobility for older and disabled residents. Putney Women’s Institute made it its sponsored charity for 2024 and handed him a £1,500 cheque in January 2025, when he sang songs from the charity’s choir. Power to Connect, whose volunteers are shortlisted, runs free digital help sessions at libraries including Roehampton and Southfields, and was listed in last winter’s warm-spaces guide.
Six finalists are shortlisted for work in Roehampton. Bill Marney, the retired social worker, started SW15 Music as a volunteer group in 2011. It became a charity in 2022, teaches guitar, bass, drums, piano and ukulele for free, and gives instruments to children whose families cannot provide them. Seven of its children were booked to play Glastonbury’s Mandala Stage in 2025.
Orleen Mcintosh’s entry credits her with founding the Alton Explorers Club, a family club that meets at Roehampton Library, and the council’s Alton events listings name her as the contact for free messy play sessions for under-fives at St Joseph’s Church on Friday afternoons earlier this year. Lila Palmer, a primary school teacher, runs a children’s gardening club at Charcot House Community Garden. Chloe Huttner is shortlisted for volunteer dance sessions with Age Well Roehampton, the over-55s service run on the estate by the charity Hestia. Natalie Price is up for The Cockney Kitchen, a cooking project for women, according to her entry.
Two more finalists are linked to Roehampton through their organisations. Sheree Pinheiro’s entry names Citizens Advice Wandsworth, which has a centre in the Picasso Building on Minstead Gardens, and Natalie De Silva’s names Age UK Wandsworth, which runs a free weekly Community Shed for over-60s at Portswood Place.
Peter Anthony is shortlisted as a founding member of Roehampton Playing Fields Trust, his entry says. The community trust that runs the fields secured a £568,000 Football Foundation grant in April towards a £1.1m pavilion rebuild. Aurnela Madede is up for Sanctuary for Sisterhood, which was billed to run the drumming workshop when Focus Hall reopened on the Alton Estate in March.
Next door in Earlsfield, the boxing coach is Sid Khan, shortlisted for more than 30 years at Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club. He is also the eldest brother of London Mayor Sadiq Khan and had been head coach for 30 years. Joe Joyce, from Putney, took up boxing there at 22 and went on to win Olympic silver. In Southfields, Recycle More Southfields, run by volunteers, is up for collecting hard-to-recycle items, and ran recycling games at last year’s yard sale trail.
Elsewhere in the borough, Renee Tonkin, who runs Science Owl, is up twice for free children’s workshops in libraries, and the forum SEND Parent Carers in Wandsworth appears three times, as a group and through Jackie Slaughter and Georgia Barrett. Ruth Essel’s Pointe Black ballet school in Battersea grew from one pupil in May 2021 to more than 40 dancers, the council said in 2024. Kim Perlow is shortlisted for Link UP London, which she co-founded in Battersea in 2016 to match skilled volunteers with small charities. In Nine Elms, Nicholas Scipioni is up for Two Little Giraffes, the gelateria that gives space to local artists.
Know a local hero?
If you know someone in Putney, Roehampton or Southfields who goes out of their way to help others, get in touch and tell us about them. They may feature in a future story.
