Late in year speech-maker will identify person making awards (9)
I believe the answer is:
decorator
'identify person making awards' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'late in year speech-maker' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'late' could be 'dec' and 'dec' is found within the answer.
'speech maker' could be 'orator' (I've seen this before) and 'orator' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'will' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for decorator that I've seen before include "One doing up a house or room" , "Painter, wallpaper hanger" , "Who paints" , "chap giving medals?" , "Worker embellishing a property" .)