Charity and Fellowship

The Court set to one side a portion of the money from the Richard Gardner Williams bequest to form a Charitable Trust with the benefit of tax relief. This continues and is augmented by donations from the Company and members of the Livery.

The Court’s policy has been to concentrate on giving to deserving causes connected with the Company, the Craft or the City. Members of the Company are encouraged to give to the Charitable Trust by Deed of Covenant.

As with other City Companies, the giving of hospitality is a very old tradition with the Turners, who prize the friendly atmosphere of their functions, foster good fellowship among their members and seek to ensure the strongest possible corporate spirit within the Company.

This spirit also plays its part in the important role of the Livery in the Corporation of London. The fortunes of the Livery and the Corporation are closely bound together with the Livery formally electing the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs each year.

The Charitable Trust

The Turners’ Charitable Trust is registered with the Charity Commissioners (No 267372) and can benefit from the reclaim of standard rate tax on the contributions received from UK taxpayers.

Objects

The Trust currently has two principal aims:

  • To support the Craft of Turning

  • To promote related charities

Activities

The Craft of Turning

The Charitable Trust awards prizes in the form of money, medals and certificates to successful students nationwide in various woodworking, turning and relevant engineering courses administered by the City & Guilds. Our policy is to support individuals only where such support might help a turner develop special skills.

Prizes are also awarded to the technical training schools of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.

In addition the Company runs a biennial turning competition and at the Millennium Competition awards were presented by the Lord Mayor to 31 Turners, 19 City & Guilds students, 3 Colleges and 8 representatives of the three Armed Services.

Baptismal Font presented to St Bride's Church

Related Charities

These are reviewed annually from the large number of requests for support that the Company receives. Broadly speaking, the policy agreed by the Court of Assistants is to support in approximately equal proportions the following relevant areas:

  • The City

  • The Lord Mayor’s Charity

  • The Master’s Charity (his personal choice)

  • The Armed Services Charities

This permits the Trust to give meaningful support to about 10 charities each year.

If your cause falls into any of the above categories and you wish to apply for support, please contact the Clerk.

Past Master Tony Sherred presents a cheque to Ruth Dennison of the Ironbridge Trust under the beady eye of Liveryman Prof Alan Gillett