EXHIBIT 31.1

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO SECTION 302(A)

OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

I, Kevin Farragher, certify that:

1. I have reviewed the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008 of CurrencySharesSMBritish Pound Sterling Trust;

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to
state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial
condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4. The other certifying officer
and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and
15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:

(a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and
procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which
this report is being prepared;

(b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial
reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles;

(c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrants disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our
conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

(d) Disclosed in this report any change in the registrants internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrants most recent fiscal quarter (the registrants fourth fiscal
quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrants internal control over financial reporting; and

5. The other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrants auditors and PADCO Advisors II, Inc.s auditors and
the board of directors of PADCO Advisors II, Inc. and the board of directors of Rydex Fund Services, Inc. and the audit committee of Rydex Specialized Products LLCs board of managers (or persons performing equivalent functions):

(a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably
likely to adversely affect the registrants ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

(b) Any
fraud, whether or not material, that involves persons who have a significant role in the registrants internal control over financial reporting.

Date: January 14, 2009

|                             
|-----------------------------
|                             
|/s/ KEVIN FARRAGHER          
|Kevin Farragher              
|Chief Executive Officer      
|(principal executive officer)