Hunt for black Britain's best

A website has produced what is the first definitive list of Britain's foremost black achievers - scientists, scholars, pioneers, athletes and musicians who have changed the way we live.

Remarkably when a BBC television poll last year invited viewers to name the country's heroes, the only non-white face was that of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury who was the son of Indian-Parsi parents.

Now the search is on, led by Patrick Vernon, founder of black heritage website Every Generation, to rate the top 100 Great Black Britons of the past 1,000 years.

Voting starts tonight, the first day of Black History Month in the UK, when the list of 100 people will go live on the internet at www.100greatblackbritons.com where votes can be cast.

It includes household names such as Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Trevor McDonald, Linford Christie and Ms Dynamite but also puts forward names of some lesser-known black pioneers.

For example, John Edmonstone, the freed Guyanese slave who taught Charles Darwin how to stuff birds in Edinburgh and inspired his curiosity about the history of evolution and even George of Lydda, the patron saint of England, who was born in Turkey of "black" Palestinian parentage, are on the list.

Mary Seacole, veteran nurse who cared for soldiers in the Crimean War, Errol Brown, front man for pop band Hot Chocolate and Queen Victoria's grandmother Queen Charlotte, who was mixed race, are also among those named.

Mr Vernon said: "It was disappointing no black Britons made it into the earlier list but it's not that surprising because there's not much discussion on TV or in schools on the achievements of British black people, so we just aren't aware of what's been done.

"They assume black people have only been in Britain since the 1950s whereas they've actually been here since Anglo Saxon times."

Mayor Ken Livingstone was expected to open the debate in the Chamber at City Hall, tonight when the first votes will be cast.

The public can then go online or call 0901 0233330 until January 1 next year to vote. The results will be announced in February next year to coincide with Black History Month in America.