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
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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
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 and Chairman of Food from Britain. 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 HMP Wandsworth, for NACRO at HMP Brixton and as a Prison Visitor in the UK and France.
Lord Cobbold (David)
Lord Cobbold is owner of Knebworth House. Educated at Trinity College Cambridge, he has held numerous financial directorships including: Director, Hill Samuel Bank Ltd; Managing Director Gaiacorp Currency Managers and Director Close Brothers Group Plc. He has been a Trustee of The Pilgrim Trust since 1993.
Dame Ruth Runciman DBE
Dame Ruth Runciman has been a Trustee of The Pilgrim Trust since 1999. She is currently Chair of the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and the UK Drug Policy Commission and is Deputy Chair of the Prison Reform Trust. She is a former Chair of the National AIDS Trust, the Mental Health Act Commission 1994-1998 and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Drug and Alcohol Research Committee. She was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs 1974-1995 and been involved with the Citizens Advice Bureau Service for over thirty years.
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.
Mark Jones
Mark Jones has been a Trustee of The Pilgrim Trust since 2006. He has been Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum since May 2001. 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 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.
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 joined The Pilgrim Trust as a Trustee in 2007. He has worked in the Prison Service for over 20 years and Governed three prisons - Belmarsh, Swaleside and most recently, Brixton. He spent 3 years as a team leader in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons and carried out consultancy work in both Australia and Mauritius. John left Brixton in May 2006 and after a secondment as Senior Operational Advisor in the Department for Offender Health he was appointed as Head of the Corruption Prevention Unit in the National Offender Management Service in September 2008. He is Chair of the drug charity Release and a Trustee of the Longford Trust. In July 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the RSA.
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.
Lord Crisp
Nigel Crisp became a trustee of the The Pilgrim Trust in 2008. He is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords, Chair of Sightsavers International and a member of several international groups and task forces dealing with healthcare related issues. In 2007 and 2008 he was co-chair to a Global Health Workforce Alliance Task Force and was Chief Executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health from 2000 to 2006. He worked in community development and industry before joining the NHS in 1986.
Meeting Dates
The Trustees meet four times a year. Applications are taken to meetings following an assessment process. Once the assessment has been completed, applicants are told if and when their appeal will be considered.
Annual Report
Download our most recent annual report (opens in new window)
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