In 1981, the Bishops Trust – the brain-child of Council member John Newman – was formed with John Selfe, OD and former career diplomat, as its first director. The Council set up the Trust to help provide a constant flow of funding for the school, its prime objectives spelt out in the original trust deed being:

• To provide the opportunity to attract and collect funds
• To act as a conduit for funds, such that any donations received would be loaned to the school
• To ensure that the aims and achievements of Bishops should be given the widest publicity
• To improve communication between all interested parties, to remind them of the school’s needs and to encourage them to remember Bishops in their wills

What has been little recognized was the foresight displayed by John Newman and his fellow members of Council: a further important reason for the establishment of the Trust was that the Council members of the time foresaw a complete change of government within the foreseeable future – with the potential consequences of the school being nationalized. Thus, it was considered prudent that the money from any future fund raising campaigns should rather be collected in the name of the Trust, loaned to the school and, in the event of nationalization, claimed back. History reveals that the Council members were very right in respect of a change of government and very wrong on the matter of nationalization – and in recent times the loans to the school have been written off by the Trust in its financial accounts.

Under John Selfe and his successors, first Anthony Lister, then Eileen Shean, the Trust office was active in marketing the school, driving campaigns to raise funds and handling donations. Considerable administrative support came from trustees, such as Lawson Howes in his capacity as treasurer, ensuring effective and efficient management of a key element of the school’s affairs. In recent years, responsibility for much of this field work has been taken over by executives of the school itself, albeit that the trustees continue to hold a watching brief and the trust itself continues to act as a conduit for funds.

Nowadays, benefactors of the school use the Trust – and its associated trusts in the United Kingdom and the USA – as a beneficiary of their generosity, financial planning and wills – and particularly in the case of the two foreign trusts – as a tax efficient route for making donations.

Contact details for all three trusts are as follows:

Presently, trustees of the Bishops Trust are:

Alan Ramsay, chairman;
Geoff Everingham, chairman, Bishops Council;
James McGregor, former chairman, Bishops Council;
Grant Nupen, Principal;
Michael Bourne, chairman, Council finance committee; and
Brian Robertson, chairman, OD Union;
with Mukesh Govan, Bishops financial manager as secretary.