By Anne W. Semmes
In her many years in Greenwich Australian-born Natalie Pray has brought dedication to her late husband Malcolm Pray, and honor and literary education as the long serving hosting president of the Greenwich branch of the English-Speaking Union (ESU). She also serves on the board of the ESU branch in Palm Beach. Add to that her having served as the only female president of the charitable St. George’s Society in New York City, another British organization, founded in 1770. As chair of their capital campaign with three million dollars raised, she was honored with their Order of St. George and the St. George Medal of Honour.
More honoring came in 2022, with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne presenting Natalie Pray in New York City with The Princess Royal Award “In recognition of extraordinary contributions to support The English-Speaking Union’s mission of promoting global understanding and good will.” Pray has served on ESU’s National Board while serving as president of its Greenwich Branch.
But her latest honor has caught her by surprise. She recently opened a letter from the British Ambassador to the United States to read of her “appointment as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire [MBE].” Her MBE comes with its citation to “Former President, St. George’s Society, New York. For services to UK/US cultural relations and to philanthropy.” She will be presented with this MBE medal, she hopes, by the King of England, King Charles in the New Year.
“It is overwhelming,” shares Pray. “That letter from the British Ambassador was a total surprise.” But she was directed to not share this news until the New Year Honours List was published in London on December 30 as it now has been. “The award will be presented at a Royal Investiture in 2024,” she tells, and she is “awaiting Buckingham Palace notification of when that will be.”
With Pray’s impressive history in her adopted country as well as her being a member of the Commonwealth such a citation is understood. As a member of the American Fund for Westminster Abbey, she helped raise $1.5 Million for The Queen’s Galleries, including funding a stained-glass window in memory of Malcolm Pray. She was present when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth opened the new Galleries and was presented to the Queen at Westminster Abbey on that occasion.
Other Contributions to UK/US cultural relations include serving on the American Board of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Old Royal Naval College, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. “Being able to serve and support charitable organizations close to my heart,” she says, “is reward enough. But the King’s MBE Medal is beyond my wildest dreams, not forgetting that humility comes before honour.”
It’s the springtime that Pray anticipates traveling across the pond to Buckingham Palace where she will be presented with her MBE medal. Because of COVID, British Ambassador to the US Dame Karen Pierce had shared that no investitures took place during UK lockdowns, thus a backlog of people waiting.
