News

Remembering our founder, Lord Andrew Phillips of Sudbury

The extended Young Citizens family is saddened to hear of the death of Lord Andrew Phillips of Sudbury, the charity’s founder. 

The former Liberal Democrat candidate and member of the House of Lords passed away on Easter Sunday. 

Lord Phillips was a pioneering solicitor and a much-loved legal expert and broadcaster, regularly appearing on Jimmy Young’s BBC Radio 2 show as the “Legal Eagle” for nearly 30 years. 

He set up the Law in Education project, and subsequently founded The Citizenship Foundation, with his friends Don Rowe and Tony Thorpe in 1989 when they noticed young people were not learning enough about the law.

Together, they established the National Mock Trial Competition, which first took place in Reading in 1991 and introduces thousands of students to the law each year. 

The charity, which was renamed Young Citizens in 2018, has since helped millions of young learners gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to become active, engaged and motivated citizens. 

We would like to pay tribute Andrew for his unwavering commitment to citizenship education throughout his life. Our thoughts are with his family at this time. 

Young Citizens plans to honour Andrew with special contributions from his closest colleagues in due course.