About Us
History
The Pilgrim Trust was founded in 1930 by the wealthy American philanthropist Edward Stephen Harkness. Inspired by his admiration and affection for Great Britain, Harkness endowed the Trust with just over £2 million pounds. Harkness did not want the charity named after him, so the decision was taken to name the charity The Pilgrim Trust to signify its link with the land of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was Harkness’s wish that his gift be given in grants for some of Britain’s ‘more urgent needs’ and to ‘promote her future well-being’. The first Trustees decided that the Trust should assist with social welfare projects, preservation (of buildings and countryside) and the promotion of art and learning. This has remained the focus of The Pilgrim Trust and the current Board of Trustees follows Harkness’s guidelines by giving grants to projects in the fields of Preservation and Scholarship and of Social Welfare. Trustees review these objectives every three years.
Read more about the Trust, its achievements, the people and principles that shaped it and its vision for the future.
People
Georgina Nayler
Georgina Nayler joined The Pilgrim Trust as Director 1996. She is a graduate of the University of Warwick where she read history. She joined the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1982 and went on to become director in 1989, a post she held until 1995. She was a member of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland from 1990-1996. She is a member of the Advisory Board to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick and is also a Trustee of the Lady Charlotte Bonham Carter Charitable Trust.
Pauline Romano
Jenny Oppenheimer
Amelia Bertram
Justine Ramsden
Trustees
Lady Jay of Ewelme CBE (Sylvia)
Lady Jay of Ewelme CBE was appointed Chairman of the Pilgrim Trust in January 2005, having previously served as a Trustee. Lady Jay is Vice-President of L’Oreal (UK). She is also a non-executive director of Saint-Gobain; Alcatel-Lucent; The Body Shop and Lazard Ltd. She is a Trustee of the Entente Cordiale Scholarships Scheme, The Prison Reform Trust and The Body Shop Foundation. She was Director-General of the (British) Food and Drink Federation 2001-2005. Educated at Nottingham University and the London School of Economics, she joined the Civil Service as a fast stream Administrator. Her work was mainly in development aid but in 1990 she was seconded to the French Treasury to help establish the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. From 1996 to 2001 she accompanied her husband on his diplomatic posting as British Ambassador in Paris.
Lady Jay has done voluntary work as a member of the Board of Visitors at Dame Ruth Runciman Wandsworth, for NACRO at HMP Brixton and as a Prison Visitor in the UK and France.
Tim Knox
Tim Knox has been Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London since 2005. He worked for the National Trust between 1995 and 2005, first as its Architectural Historian and then, from 2002, as Head Curator, responsible for the presentation, research and curatorial care of the Trust’s historic properties. Before this he worked for six years as Assistant Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings Collection. Since 2005 he has acted as Historic Buildings Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He writes and lectures on architecture, sculpture, and the history of collecting.
Paul Richards
Paul Richards was born in 1951 and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford where he took a first in Modern History. He joined Samuel Montagu & Co, merchant bankers, in 1972 and was a Director of the firm from 1980 to 1997. From 1997 until 2005 he was Special Adviser on Europe to the Bank of England. He is currently Head of Regulatory Policy at the International Capital Market Association.
Sir Mark Jones
Sir Mark Jones has been a Trustee of The Pilgrim Trust since 2006. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford and gained an MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Previous positions include six months at the National Museum, Singapore in 1969; Assistant Keeper of Coins and Medals, British Museum 1974-1990; Keeper of Coins and Medals, British Museum 1990-1992; and Director of the National Museums of Scotland 1992-2001.He was Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum from 2001-2011. He has retained an active scholarly interest in his specialism and is Vice President of the British Art Medal Society. He is also an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has an Hon. D.Litt. from Royal Holloway College (University of London). He is currently a member of the DCMS Advisory Panel, Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Conference, a trustee of the National Trust, the Gilbert Collection and The Heather Trust and is a member of the Court and Council of the Royal College of Art. He is Master of St Cross College, Oxford.
Lord Justice (Sir Alan) Moses
Sir Alan joined The Pilgrim Trust as a Trustee in 2006. Born in 1945, he was educated at Bryanston School and University College, Oxford (Quondam Exhibitioner, BA). He was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1968. He was a member of the Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown, Common Law 1981-1990; Junior Counsel to Inland Revenue, Common Law 1985-1990; a Recorder 1985-1996; QC 1990; High Court Judge (Queen’s Bench Divison) 1996-2005; Presiding Judge South Eastern Circuit 1999-2002 and then became Lord Justice of Appeal in 2005. He is a professor of Law and Member of Council. He is an Honorary member of the Royal Academy and from 2002-2005 was a member of The London Library Committee.
John Podmore
John Podmore worked in the Prison Service for 25 years and governed three prisons – Belmarsh, Swaleside and Brixton. He spent three years as an inspector of prisons and carried out consultancy for the Australian and Mauritian prison services. He worked in a number of roles in prison service, latterly as the Head of the Anti-corruption Unit. He left the service in March 2011 receiving an award from the High Sheriff of Greater London for outstanding work in criminal justice in London. John now works as an writer, freelance consultant and broadcaster and is also a trustee of the Longford Trust, Chair of the Longford Prize Panel and on the steering group of the PEN Readers and Writers programme. In July 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the RSA and is a member of the Homicide Review Advisory Group.
James Fergusson
James Fergusson joined The Pilgrim Trust in 2008. A writer and bookdealer, he is proprietor of James Fergusson Books & Manuscripts and former managing director of Robin Waterfield Ltd, the Oxford antiquarian booksellers. From 1986 to 2007 he was founding obituaries editor of The Independent newspaper. A Trustee of the London Library Trust since 2001, he has also served on the Committee of the London Library and the Executive Committee of the Friends of the National Libraries.
David John Verey CBE
David Verey joined The Pilgrim Trust in 2008. He is currently Chairman of The Art Fund, a Director of Daily Mail & General Trust plc and a Fellow of Eton College. He is a member of the Blackstone Group’s European Advisory Board. He was Chairman of the Tate GalleryTrustees and the Tate Gallery Foundation from 1998 to 2004. He joined Lazard Brothers & Co. Ltd in 1972, retiring in 2001; he became Chairman in 1992, having been Chief Executive for two years before that.
Professor Colin Blakemore
Colin Blakemore is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and was formerly Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council. Colin is a well known communicator of science and in 1989 was awarded the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday Prize for his work in public communication. He has contributed to numerous radio and television broadcasts and has written and presented many other programmes about science, including a 13 part series, “The Mind Machine” on BBC television. Professor Blakemore’s research has included work on vision, the early development of the brain, and conditions such as stroke and Huntington’s disease.
Lady Riddell
Sarah Riddell joined the Pilgrim Trust in January 2011. She has a background in journalism and arts publishing. For eleven years she was non-executive director, and vice-chairman, of the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, and vice-chairman of the Hammersmith Hospitals Charity. Lady Riddell has served as a lay member of local and multi-centre research ethics committees, and is a lay member of the expert advisory group set up to advise the Commission on Medicines on safety in clinical trials. She is a trustee of the John Ellerman Foundation and the Sir James Knott Trust.
Sarah Staniforth
Sarah Staniforth joined the Pilgrim Trust in October 2011. She is the Museums and Collections Director at the National Trust as well as a director of National Trust Enterprises and Historic House Hotels. She joined the National Trust in 1985 as an adviser on Paintings, Conservation and Environmental Control. For many years she served on the Council of IIC (International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works), initially as a Council Member then as Vice-President. She is a Fellow of IIC, the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society of Arts. Sarah joined the Council of AIM (Association of Independent Museums) in 2011 and has been a member of the AIM conservation panel which distributes the Pilgrim Trust conservation awards since 2007.
Michael Baughn
Michael was co-opted onto the Pilgrim Trust Finance Commiteee in January 2010 and became a Trustee in October 2011. Previously he worked in the financial sector joining N. M. Rothschild & Sons in 1959 and moving to Lazard Brothers & Co Ltd in 1966. He was appointed Director at Lazards in 1979 and went onto to become MD in 1986 and Senior Adviser in 2002. Michael has been involved in a number of charitable concerns including governor of The Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables (1978-1987) and on the Committee of The Heath and Hampstead Society from (1996-2002) He is currently on the Board of Governors at Westminster School and Council Westminster School Society. He has also been a Lay Member on the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal since 1990. He is also a governor at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust (2006-to date) and was recently appointed North London Collegiate School in 2011. He is a member of the Garrick Club Investment Committee.
Meeting Dates
The Trustees meet four times a year. All applications are assessed and once the assessment has been completed, applicants are told if and when their appeal will be considered.
Annual Report
(click to download)
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