Leicestershire greats shortlist for Green Plaque Award

Artist John Theodore Kenney, from Kibworth, who illustrated Thomas the Tank Engine, has been shortlisted for a Green Plaque Award

Twelve of Leicestershire's most famous people and buildings have been shortlisted for a Green Plaque Award.

Among them are war heroes, the printer of Ladybird Books, the illustrator of Thomas the Tank Engine and the John Taylor Bellfoundry.

Six plaques will be awarded in a bid to help promote heritage in the region, with people asked to vote for their favourite six before 7 April.

A panel of judges drew up the shortlist from dozens of nominations.

County council leader Nick Rushton said the scheme would be limited to six awards a year in order to keep it "special".

People nominated for the award must have been from Leicestershire and dead for at least 20 years.

The shortlisted nominees are:

• Charles Booth, social reformer and philanthropist (Thringstone)

• Arthur Newberry Choyce, WWI Poet (Hugglescote)

• Sgt John Hannah, awarded the Victoria Cross (Birstall)

• Brig Gen James Lochhead Jack, awarded the Distinguished Service Order (Kibworth)

• Flt Lt Geoffrey Rice DFC RAF VR, Dambuster pilot (Burbage)

• Alice Young, missionary and teacher (Enderby)

• William Henry Bragg, Nobel Prize winner for Physics (Market Harborough)

• Graham Chapman, founding member of 'Monty Python's flying circus' (Wigston & Melton)

• The John Taylor Bellfoundry, Loughborough

• John Theodore Kenney, artist who illustrated Thomas the Tank Engine (Kibworth)

• The Old Courthouse, Melton Mowbray

• Henry Wills, printer of Ladybird Books (Loughborough)