British Council Association

Over the last few years or so, we have usually held a couple of “hybrid” meetings at Stratford, attended in person and digitally in the Prince of Wales suite, allowing us to offer the presentations to our members around the UK and overseas. We also mention an older one for interest.

• The British Council and Soft power: Our AGM at Stratford is usually followed by a talk by senior British Council staff. At the latest AGM in July 2025 we were joined by James Perkins, Head of Research, and Mona Lotten, who works on Soft Power in his team. The subject was of interest in the light of the new UK Soft Power Council, and we are maintaining a link with them over possible collaboration on this subject.
• A Cultural Response to Global Challenges: In March 2023 the BCA worked closely with Mark Stephens, British Council Director of Cultural Engagement and his team, who made a presentation on this exciting new cultural work that the British Council has been developing over the last few years, with its focus on Arts and other related activity, linked with development issues. 
• English and the British Council: In June 2024 Mark Walker, Director of English and Examinations talked to us about the current work in these areas, a central feature of the British Council’s work which has changed so much in recent years. He was joined by Mina Patel, who talked about the Future of English Project. It generated much interesting discussion among those attending.
• Arts Work in Conflict Affected Areas: A workshop activity from 2016 remains of interest. The objective of the workshop was to share the experience of former and current British Council staff through the study of six selected case studies, past and present: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, and Bosnia in the areas of theatre, visual art, film and more. The aim was to enhance awareness of and to explore the potential for such work, and the positive conclusions were widely circulated in a report.

We arrange two receptions each year.

In April 2025 we held our Spring Reception in a private room in the Kings Head pub in Mayfair, a purely in-person event, designed to provide an easily accessible gathering mostly for South East UK participants, but others scheduled London visits around it. We had a brief talk and questions with Jo Beall, ex-Head of Education in the British Council, now deputy Chair of SOAS Council, who had just published her first novel “Meadowlands Dawn” based on her experience of detention in South Africa under apartheid when young.

In November 2025 we held our Autumn Reception in the same pub, with Paul Woodgates who is on the British Council Board of Trustees talking on the subject of “British Higher Education and the World”, which was well received. Sixty people attended and we had to decline twenty more as the room was at capacity. We plan to move to a bigger private room for our Receptions in 2026. 

Our visits are usually private tours of places of interest and attract mostly people who can get to them easily.  However, they are always thrown open to the entire membership, particularly those in the South- East which has the largest concentration of members.

A visit to the National Archives in Kew was fully booked and took place on 12th February 2025. It was so popular that another is planned for 11th March 2026.

There was also an informal visit to the Chelsea Physic Gardens Christmas Fair on 27th November. 

The North of England Group organised a visit to the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds in November 2025.

The West of England Group did a trip to Winchester Cathedral and College (including Library) on 12th June and a visit to The Hall, Bradford-on-Avon on 21st October, both in 2025.

New Horizons, published twice a year, contains articles, book reviews, announcements and other news.  About the British council. We have regular obituaries of those who have passed, and member sharing their experiences of work with the British Council. The articles and all other contributions reflect the diverse interests and experiences of the membership. The most recent edition was over 90 pages. 

We maintain collaboration with our fellow UK alumni organisations. Our members are invited to join the digital presentations of the FCDOA, and we have been discussing with them possible collaboration on the theme of Soft Power. 

The Facebook Group provides a social networking platform for any ex-member of the British Council. It is especially useful for many who live outside London and the southeast of the UK and overseas. Lively postings and discussion cover promotion of our activities, discussion of British Council developments, and personal connections between colleagues from different countries.

The British Library has an Oral History Collection, which covers a wide range of subject areas relating to British life, work, culture, and experience. At the request of the British Council a decade ago, the British Council Association liaised with the British Library and undertook audio interviews with 110 retired members of the British Council, now deposited and publicly accessible by visit and online in the British Library as part of that collection. A recent 'soft power' academic study of the British Council by Caroline Ritter (Imperial Encore: The Cultural Project of the late British Empire) made extensive use of this resource. As part of the 90th Anniversary project the British Council undertook a further exercise in undertaking oral interviews to feature in the promotion activities, and the two exercises are now integrated in the British Library archives to be publicly accessible.

The Secretary of the BCA attends the Benevolent Fund committee, and members support its work through fundraising events, especially at Christmas, and sometimes through contact with and support to retired members in need. We are told that BCA members are exceptionally generous in donating to the Ben Fund and to leaving legacies in their wills.

The BCA collaborates closely with the British Council post responsible for the British Council Archives. The BCA offers a unique corporate memory, providing photos, background details on events and pictures, and collaborating on the Archive initiatives. We worked closely with Stephen Witkowski when he was responsible for the archives, and he led an event on how the Archives work, and how we could support his work.