Olaf Schmid Photo: Andrew Crowley  Joanna Lumley Photo: Eddie Mulholland  Hilary Mantel Photo: Martin Pope  The person who leaked the hard drive containing the full, unredacted details of MPs' expenses claims ignited the biggest political story since Watergate. The revelations cost the Speaker his job and triggered a wave of anger against politicians. The disclosures revealed a culture of systematic fiddling that ran to the very top of both Government and Opposition. Only a handful of MPs emerged with their reputations intact. And the full impact of the revelations has yet to be felt: that will come on polling day, when the voters finally have their chance to pass judgment on those whose snouts were deepest in Westminster's troughs.  Ryan Giggs: Fleet-footed trophy winner  At 36, Giggs enjoyed a vintage year. The likeable Manchester United playmaker's award as BBC Sports Personality of the Year was a fitting reward for the most decorated player in English football history. In May he won a record 11th Premier League winners' medal and played a pivotal role in his club's run to the Champions League final. This year he also made his 800th appearance for United – the only club he has represented in a career spanning 19 years – and scored his 150th goal for them.  Jonathan Evans: Discreet security director  The man tasked with keeping Britain's 60 million citizens safe from terrorist attack heads an organisation of around 3,700 crown servants dedicated to serving the nation. His is a peculiar position: the head of MI5 has to balance the security needs of the state while trying to retain a free and open society; he is required to work closely with the police and a raft of foreign security services, while keeping this nation's secrets safe. Jonathan Evans has achieved all of this while remaining in the shadows.  Mark Rylance: Mercurial actor and director  Since leaving the Globe Theatre in 2005, which he ran with great distinction for 10 years, Rylance seems to have discovered a second lease of life as an actor. He was always great, but now he seems to have become something else, almost dissolving physically into each role, so perfectly does he embody it. His frightening and frightened Hamm in Beckett's Endgame and the roistering wildman Johnny Byron in Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem were towering performances, in the tradition of the finest British acting. Offstage, his delicate eccentricity and passion for all he does also seem both peculiarly British and very cherishable.  Jessica Ennis: Steely world champion heptathlete  Ennis displayed all of her Sheffield steel in 2009 with a gold-medal winning performance at the World Athletics Championships. Twelve months after missing out on the Beijing Olympics through injury, she surpassed herself in the heptathlon, winning gold in Berlin. Affectionately known as "the tadpole", she delivered exceptional displays in the 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m, long jump, javelin and 800 m. Her score of 6,731 points was a personal best.  For Mervyn King, 2009 has been a come-back year. In the run-up to the financial crisis, the Governor of the Bank of England didn't have his ear close enough to the ground to realise that banks were getting into dire straits; then he was slow to slash rates when the economy ran aground. This year, his independence of spirit and intellectual rigour have played well. He has popularised the notion of TBTF – he passionately believes that we should not have banks that are "too big to fail" – and has been outspoken on the need for reform, even at the risk of embarrassing the Government. Although it is too early to assess the success of quantitative easing as a policy, the Bank's execution has been smooth. If the Tories win the general election, the Bank will wield greater power than ever, as it will regain supervision of banks, a power lost when it was made independent of government by Gordon Brown.  Yvonne Hossack: Doughty campaigning solicitor  Yvonne Hossack has fought in the High Court against the closure of care homes, most notably in the case of a 106‑year-old great great grandmother who faced eviction. Miss Hossack has taken up dozens of cases against local authorities, saying that the closure of homes by local councils – often because they are on valuable building sites – could hasten the deaths of vulnerable elderly people. In September, she was cleared of breaching professional rules of conduct by a Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal. Among those who gave evidence to the hearing on her behalf was Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, in his capacity as MP for Hull West and Hessle; he had backed her campaign against the closure of a care home in his constituency. Miss Hossack is driven by a sense of injustice at the treatment of vulnerable people and by her Christian faith: "There is a more perfect judge we will one day all face," she has said.  It is hard to think of a more popular winner of the Booker Prize than Hilary Mantel. She has laboured at the coalface of writing for 20 years, winning awards and gaining readers, but never quite hitting the big time – until Wolf Hall, her study of Henry VIII's right-hand man Thomas Cromwell took this year's big prize. Her qualities as a writer are a striking ability to tell a good tale, and a surprising variety of subjects: contemporary novels, short stories and a memoir all preceded Wolf Hall. But it is historical fiction – relevant to our times – that is her particular gift. As a woman, she is characterised by modesty, fortitude and unpretentious cleverness.  Joanna Lumley: Staunch friend to the Gurkhas  The 63-year-old actress moved on to the political stage in 2009 with devastating impact, taking up the cause of Gurkha veterans who had served Britain but had then been told they could not settle in this country. With a straightforward argument and the public behind her, she had Gordon Brown and Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, squirming. A series of humiliating climb-downs from ministers led to a famous victory in May, with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith having to announce that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. So impressive was Miss Lumley that there were calls for her to stand for Parliament.  Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid: Selfless bomb-disposal expert  Staff Sergeant Schmid from Truro, Cornwall, was killed defusing a roadside bomb in Helmand in October on the final day of his six-month tour. In the bitter war against the Taliban, the gravest threat faced by our soldiers is undoubtedly the improvised explosive devices which have accounted for the majority of deaths and injuries to British service personnel. The courage of our bomb-disposal experts in detecting and disarming these deadly devices has saved countless lives, and is essential to the ultimate success of the mission.  During the course of his six-month tour in Helmand, Olaf "Oz" Schmid, 30, of the Royal Logistic Corps, made safe 64 IEDs and found 11 bomb-making centres. None of the situations that Schmid encountered was identical. Every device was different, and Schmid was engaged in a deadly battle of wits every time he approached a device. A loose wire or an unexpected movement could cause the device to explode at any moment. Schmid added to these dangers by declining to wear an explosive ordnance disposal protection suit because it restricted his movement in the sweltering heat.  During last summer's Operation Panther's Claw, the military offensive to clear the Taliban out of southern Helmand, Schmid and his team methodically removed scores of IEDs that had been left by the retreating enemy, and in August he cleared a mile of dirt track in Sangin that had been mined with IEDs. On the day of his death, October 31, Schmid was conducting a routine bomb clearance in the vicinity of the British base at Sangin when the device he was defusing exploded, killing him instantly.  His dignified widow, Christina, said after his death: "Oz was perplexed when people asked him how many Taliban he had killed. For him, his job was about preserving life." In naming Staff Sergeant Schmid the Daily Telegraph's Briton of the Year, we do so not because he was different from the thousands of other British men and women who have served in Afghanistan, but precisely because he exemplified all of their qualities of selflessness, duty and courage.
In the final part of our review of notable Britons of 2009, here are the top    10 chosen by Telegraph writers and editors, including our Briton of the Year.