is believed to grammar sentence, which one is correct?

Question

Which one is grammatically correct?
He is believed to be awarded the prize at the age of 17 when he was in London.
or
He is believed to have been awarded the prize at the age of 17 when he was in London.

Answer 1

The latter is correct.

He is believed to have been awarded the price at the age of 17, when he was in London.

This means that we currently believe (but are unable to verify with certainty) that he received an award at that time. It's quite wordy, but correct.

Answer 2

Of the two, the second sentence sounds a lot better because it structurally follows the very common grammar pattern in English to be believed to have done something. When you say that someone is believed to have done something, what it means is that people concerned have good reasons to think or assume that what they've done has in fact happened or is true.

Some examples:

He is believed to have been killed in battle. (People have good reasons to believe that he was killed in battle.)

The Babylonians are believed to have been the first to discover electricity. (Scientists believe that there is good evidence that points to the fact that it actually was the Babylonians who first discovered electricity. I'm not sure if that's true though. It's just an example.)