The British Egyptian Society is very proud of their heritage and their Sir Michael Weir Lectures
In 1990 The British Egyptian Society was the brainchild of two Ambassadors, Sir Michael Weir who had been British Ambassador to Egypt and Dr Mohamed Shaker who was the then Egyptian Ambassador to the Court of St James.
Sir Michael died in 2006 the same year the Society held a Conference on “50 Years since Suez – From conflict to collaboration” which was a great success.
Our flagship event each year is our Sir Michael Weir Lecture where we invite a thought provoking speaker followed by a lively debate.
Speakers have included:
2008 The Rt. Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, PC The title of his talk was “After the Crash”.
2009 The lecture was delivered by the eminent heart surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub.
2010 it was time for the “Mid West meets Mid East – The American Republic in Imperial Action” given by Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG.
2011 Sir Derek Plumbly KCMG who had been the British Ambassador during a difficult time for Sharm and Dahab.
2013 The political strategist Dr. Mostafa Hegazy enlightened us with his expertise in strategic planning.
2014 Sir Dominic Asquith who had been the British Ambassador in Iraq, Egypt and Libya who had survived an assassination attempt chose as topic “Beset by unintended consequences”.
2015 The highly respected Egyptian politician and Presidential candidate. H.E. Mr Amr Moussa covered a wide range of topics including his time as Secretary General of the Arab League.
2016 The Rt Hon Charles Clarke gave a talk titled “The future relationship between the UK and Egypt in a rapidly changing world”.
2019 The highly respected Director of the LSE, Dame Minouche Shafik. (Now Baroness Shafik, of Camden) gave her talk titled ‘Why we need a new Social Contract: Lessons for Egypt’.
2021 H E Aboul Gheit Secretary General of the Arab League gave an interesting talk which focused of his two books; Egypt’s Foreign Policy in of Crisis and Witness to War and Peace