Sir Harry Brittain 1973,
with a maquette by the sculptor
Oscar Nemon.

The Pilgrims of Great Britain's Annual Meeting lectures started in 1991, but in 1994 it was decided to dedicate them to the memory of Sir Harry Brittain KBE, 1873-1974, the British journalist and Conservative politician who tried to foster closer Anglo-American relations and was the principal founder of the Pilgrims. For seventeen years, first as Honorary Secretary and then as Chairman, he steered the society through its early life. He resigned the Chairmanship in 1918 because of his Parliamentary duties, and became its senior Vice President and the only Pilgrim Emeritus.

Baroness Manningham-Buller
with Admiral Lord Boyce, President
of the Pilgrims, October 2013.

Following the 1994 Annual Meeting on 19 September 1994 at the American Embassy, Robert Hunter, US Ambassador to NATO, delivered the first Sir Harry Brittain Memorial Lecture. Subsequent lecturers included Dame Stella Rimington, former director of the security service, 1996, Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of the BBC, 1997, Sir Robert May, Chief Government Scientific Adviser, 2000, Sir Simon Jenkins 2005, General Lord Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, 2006, The Right Revd Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, 2008, Lord O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, 2010, Lord Hurd of Westwell, former Foreign Secretary, 2011, Professor Christopher Andrew, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Cambridge, 2012. Baroness Manningham-Buller, former Director General of the Security Service, was the 2013 Sir Harry Brittain Memorial Lecturer; Peter Kellner, President of YouGuv, was the 2014 Lecturer and the Right Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind was the 2015 Lecturer.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind delivering the 2015
Sir Harry Brittain Memorial Lecture.