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The Pilgrims Society, founded on 16 July 1902 [1] by Sir Harry Brittain KBE CMG, is a British-American society established, in the words of American diplomat Joseph Choate, 'to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain'. It is not to be confused with the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Over the years it has boasted an elite membership of politicians, diplomats, businessmen, and writers who have included Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Caspar Weinberger, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Henry Luce, Lord Carrington, Alexander Haig, Paul Volcker, Thomas Kean, George Shultz, and Walter Cronkite among many others. Members of the immediate Royal Family, United States secretaries of state and United States ambassadors to the Court of St. James's are customarily admitted ex officio to membership in the Society.
The Society is notable for holding dinners to welcome into office each successive U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The patron of the society is King Charles III. [ citation needed ]
Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech to the Society on March 18, 1941. [2]
The first informal meeting of the Pilgrims of Great Britain included General Joseph Wheeler, Colonel (later General Sir) Bryan Mahon, the Hon Charles Rolls and Harry Brittain.
The first meeting of the Pilgrims of the United States was at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on 13 January, 1903.
The Pilgrims of Great Britain and the Pilgrims of the United States have reciprocal membership.
Executive Committee members are and have included:
Mrs Amy Thompson is the Executive Secretary, successor to Mrs Tessa Wells
Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these cabinet-level positions, he was a general in the United States Army, serving first as the vice chief of staff of the Army and then as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In 1973, Haig became the youngest four-star general in the U.S. Army's history.
Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill, was a senior British Army officer with service in both the First World War and the Second World War. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, and subsequently served in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and then Senior British Representative on the Combined Chiefs of Staff.
Whitelaw Reid was an American politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of Ohio in the War, a popular work of history.
The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The officeholder is assisted by the Deputy Treasurer to the King/Queen for the management of the Sovereign Grant, currently Sally O'Neill.
Frederick Edward Guest, was a British politician best known for being Chief Whip of Prime Minister David Lloyd George's Coalition Liberal Party, 1917–1921. He was also Secretary of State for Air between 1921 and 1922. He won the bronze medal with the British polo team at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The Deerfield Residence is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to Ireland in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The Sylvanus Thayer Award is an honor given annually by the United States Military Academy at West Point to an individual whose character and accomplishments exemplifies the motto of West Point. The award is named after the "Father of the Military Academy", Colonel Sylvanus Thayer. The awardee is selected by, and the award is endowed by, a committee formed from the West Point Association of Graduates. It has been awarded annually since 1958 and is the closest recognition West Point has to granting an honorary degree.
The Malta Conference was held from January 30 to February 3, 1945 between President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom on the island of Malta. The purpose of the conference was to plan the final campaign against the Germans with the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Politically, the overriding purpose was to present a united front against Stalin in the Yalta Conference a few days later. That did not happen once Yalta began, much to Churchill's disappointment. Both leaders agreed on the undesirability of the Red Army advancing into central Europe.
Sir Harry Ernest Brittain, KBE, CMG was a British journalist and Conservative politician.
Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative politician.
Winston Churchill's Conservative Party lost the July 1945 general election, forcing him to step down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. For six years he served as the Leader of the Opposition. During these years he continued to influence world affairs. In 1946 he gave his "Iron Curtain" speech which spoke of the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Eastern Bloc; Churchill also argued strongly for British independence from the European Coal and Steel Community; he saw this as a Franco-German project and Britain still had an empire. In the General Election of 1951, Labour was defeated.
Admiral Sir George Michael Zambellas, is a retired Royal Navy officer. He was the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from April 2013 until he handed over duties to Admiral Sir Philip Jones in April 2016.
Jane Beatrice Forbes, Countess of Granard was an American-born heiress, social leader, and thoroughbred horse racer.
Sir Anthony Rumbold, 10th Baronet was a British diplomat, ambassador to Thailand and Austria.
The Royal Households of the United Kingdom consists of royal officials and the supporting staff of the British Royal Family, as well as the Royal Household which supports the Sovereign. Each member of the Royal Family who undertakes public duties has his own separate Household.
Ogden Mills Reid was an American newspaper publisher who was president of the New York Herald Tribune.
Major Sir John Hubert Ward, was a British army officer and courtier.
Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse was an American diplomat who served as the U.S. Minister to Guatemala and U.S. Minister to Colombia.
Jean Templeton Ward, Lady Ward CBE DStJ was an American-born philanthropist and society hostess. The only daughter of Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, she lived in London after her marriage to Sir John Hubert Ward, second son of the William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley.
Sir Eric Arthur Seal was a British civil servant who served as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, during World War II; and as Principal Private Secretary to Winston Churchill in his role as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1939. These two positions are public, rather than private posts. He was chairman of the UK Civil Service for seventeen years.
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