Our history

There was a Declaration of Trust, dated 22nd September 1953, when Stella Dowager Marchioness of Reading GBE, gave £1000 to WVS Trustees Ltd to create a fund for charitable purposes and thereby created the WVS Trust.

The Trust as we know it today, was signed on 16th November 1970 in the sum of Ten Thousand Pounds, with seven trustees. These were Lady Reading GBE, Frances Clode CBE, Lady Margaret Charles OBE, Alice Crawford Johnston CBE, Doreen Harris OBE, Kathleen Halpin CBE and Enid Cubitt MBE.

It was to be used “in any such manner as the Trustees shall in their own absolute discretion think fit for the relief comfort support and benefit of such persons who are or who have at any time been members of the organisation now known as
 Women’s Royal Voluntary Service either in Great Britain or elsewhere in the world of limited means who for any reason become in need of financial or some other form of help and assistance.”

The current Trustees are responsible for administering the Trust and ensuring the aims of the Trust are executed, namely by the provision of Grants and more recently the Youth Bursary.