Pipe Smoker of the Year was an award given out annually by the British Pipesmokers' Council, to honour a famous pipe-smoking individual. Initiated in 1965 as Pipeman of the Year by the Briar Pipe Trade Association, it was presented at a lunch in London's Savoy Hotel each January. The award was discontinued in 2004 because its organisers feared it fell foul of laws banning all advertising and promotion of tobacco.[1]
The award was briefly reintroduced in 2014, by the UK Federation of Pipe Clubs, at the British Pipe Smoking Championship at Newark Showground. In a departure from previous awards the recipient was not a celebrity, but the outgoing President of the UK Federation of Pipe Clubs Brian Mills, in recognition for his personal contribution in recommencing the British Pipe Smoking Championships.[2]
^Warren Mitchell did not accept his award, calling it "silly". "I smoke a pipe; I also use a lavatory brush. By the same token you could make me 'lavatory brush man of the year.'" The Guardian 13 January 1968
^Until 1972 the award was made for the pipe smoker of the previous year; from 1973 onwards it was for the forthcoming year. Manny Shinwell, who held the award throughout 1972, was subsequently listed as the "1971/1972" winner.
^Edward Fox accepted his award but declined the prize of three pipes and a quantity of his favourite tobacco and asked for the cash value, about £100, to be sent to help Cambodian refugees. The Times 25 January 1980
