2023: Professor Penny Fielding
2022: Dr. Janina Ramirez (She was unable to attend and so Dr. Lucy Wood gave the Toast to Sir Walter)
2021: Professor Murray Pittock [with video]
2020: Sir Tom Devine [with video]
2019: Professor Murray Pittock (Dinner cancelled due to COVID-19)
2018: Sir Maxwell MacLeod [with video] 110th Annual Dinner
2017: Professor Alison Lumsden [with video]
2016: Stuart Kelly [with video]
2015: Professor Gerard Carruthers [with video]
2014: Brian Taylor [with video]
2013: Douglas Gifford [with video]
2012: Sir Max Hastings [with video]
2011: Emeritus Professor Claire Lamont
2010: The Rt. Hon. Lord Sanderson of Bowden
2009: Dr Iain Gordon Brown
2008: The Duke of Buccleuch - 100th Annual Dinner (Honorary Guest - HRH Princess Royal)
2007: A.N.Wilson
2006: Professor Ian Campbell
2005: James Robertson
2004: Tam Dalyell
2003: Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott (Professor Ian Campbell presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
2002: Professor Jane Millgate
2001: The Right Honourable Sir David Edward
2000: Fraser Elgin
1999: Tom Fleming
1998: Sir John Thomson - 90th Annual Dinner
1997: Mrs. Patricia Maxwell-Scott
1996:Professor Neil MacCormick [with audio]
1995: Paul H. Scott [with audio]
1994: Dr Archie Turnbull [with audio]
1993: Right Hon. Lord Mackay of Clashfern
1992: Right Hon. Malcolm Rifkind
1991: Mrs. Dorothy Dunnett [with audio]
1990: Professor Edwin Morgan [with audio]
1989: Allan Massie [with audio]
1987/8: Professor David Hewitt [with audio] - 80th Annual Dinner
1986: Dr. T. L. Johnston
1985: The Right Hon. Lord Swann
1984: The Right Hon. Lord Grimond
1983: Lady Antonia Fraser [with audio]
1982: His Grace The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry [with audio]
1981: Professor R. J. Adam
1980: W. E. K. Anderson
1979: Lord Ballantrae (Professor David Daiches presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
1978: Magnus Magnusson
1977: The Right Hon. Lord Scarman - 70th Annual Dinner
1976: Ian Grimble [with audio]
1975: Allan C. Frazer W.S
1974: The Right Hon. Lord Tweedsmuir [with audio]
1973: The Right Hon. Harold Macmillan [with audio]
1972: The Right Hon. Earl of Longford
1971: Robert Speaight [with audio]
1970: Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper [with audio]
1969: The Hon. Lord Kilbrandon [with audio]
1968: Ludovic Kennedy
1967: The Right Hon. Lord Polwarth - 60th Annual Dinner
1966: The Right Hon. Sir Alec Douglas-Home [with audio]
1965: The Right Hon. Lord Cameron [with audio]
1964: Professor David Daiches [with audio]
1963: Malcolm Muggeridge
1962: Baroness Elliot of Harwood
1961: The Right Hon. Lord Birkett of Ulverston (Died just three weeks before the Annual Dinner so The Right Hon. Lord Clyde, The Lord Justice General presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
1960: The Most Rev. and Right Hon. Arthur Michael Ramsay, Lord Archbishop of York, (later Archbishop of Canterbury)
1959: Hesketh Pearson
1958: The Right Hon. R. A. Butler
1957: Arthur Melville Clark - 50th Annual Dinner
1957: The Right Rev. Monseignor Ronald Knox D.Litt (resigned due to ill health)
1956: The Right Hon. Viscount Kilmuir
1955: Professor C. S. Lewis
1954: The Right Hon. Lady Tweedsmuir
1953: Principal John Traill Christie
1952: Eric Linklater
1952: Principal John Traill Christie (Resigned to accept a Commission on Education in India)
1951: Professor Sir Alexander Gray
1950: The Right Hon. Walter E. Elliot
1949: The Right Rev. Maurice H. Harland (Lord Bishop of Lincoln later Durham)
1948: Field Marshal The Right Hon. Earl Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester
1947: Dr. O. H. Mavor ('James Bridie') - 40th Annual Dinner
* * * * *
1939: The Right Hon. Lord Ponsonby (Dinner cancelled due to Second World War)
1938: Major John Hay Beith (Ian Hay)
1937: Professor George Trevelyan
1936: Dr. James Curle
1936: Sir Robert S. Rait C.B.E., M.A., LL.D. (Resigned due to ill health)
1935: The Right Hon. Lord Macmillan
1934: The Hon. Lord St. Vigeans (The Most Hon. The Marquess of Linlithgow presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
1933: The Most Hon. The Marquess of Linlithgow (The Hon. Lord St. Vigeans presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
1932: Hugh Walpole
1931: Professor W. MacNeile Dixon
1930: The Very Rev. Sir George Adam Smith
1929: The Right Hon. Stanley Baldwin (Earl Baldwin of Bewdley) - 30th Annual Dinner
1928: Professor George Gordon, President of Magdalen
1927: Professor H. J. C. Grierson
1926: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
1925: The Hon. Lord Sands
1924: The Right Hon. The Earl of Birkenhead
1923: Colonel John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir)
1922: The Right Rev. Herbert Hensley Henson
1921: The Right Hon. Robert Munro KC MP. (The Very Reverend Professor Paterson presided and delivered the Toast to Sir Walter)
1920: The Right Hon. Lord Glenconner (Died - Dinner Cancelled - no Annual Report issued)
1920: The Right Hon. Lord Latymer (Resigned due to ill health)
1919: The Right Hon. Viscount Bryce
1914: The Right Hon. Viscount Bryce (Dinner Cancelled due to First World War)
1913: The Right Hon. Sir John Simon - 20th Annual Dinner
1912: The Most Rev. and Right Hon. Cosmo Gordon Lang (The Archbishop of York - later Canterbury)
1911: The Hon. Lord Guthrie
1910: Sir Donald MacAlister
1909: Sir Gilbert J. Parker, LL.D.
1908: Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Bt., LL.D.
1907: The Right Hon. George Wyndham, LL.D., M.P.
1906: Sir Ludovic J. Grant, Bt., B.A., LL.D.
1905: The Right Hon. The Earl of Lytton
1904: The Right Hon. Viscount Haldane, K.C., LL.D., M.P.
1903: The Right Hon. Augustine Birrell, K.C., LL.D., M.P. - 10th Annual Dinner
1902: Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B., LL.D., M.P.
1901: The Right Hon. The Earl of Aberdeen
1900: The Right Hon. Viscount Findlay
1899: The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell
1898: Sir George Douglas (Honorary Guest - The Right Hon. Joseph H. Choate)
1897: The Hon. Lord Stormonth Darling (Honorary Guest - The Right Hon. Arthur J. Balfour M.P. )
1896: Emeritus Professor Masson
1895: The Hon. Lord Ardwell
1894: Charles A. Cooper