Trust History

MELVILLE COLLEGE TRUST(S) – BRIEF HISTORY

THE MELVILLE COLLEGE FIELD TRUST (formerly Edinburgh Institution Field Trust)
  • Created between 1924 and 1925
  • Bazaar held to raise funds, £5700, to purchase 12 acres of ground (Windlestrawlee Farm), known as Ferryfield
  • New Field Trust registered 21/10/1927
  • Salvation Army land of 2.648 acres purchased in July 1961, plus a further 0.11 acres purchased from Edinburgh Corporation in October 1981.
  • The Melville College Field Trust Scheme (1976) was created for the purpose of transferring the Field Trust assets to the Merchant Company Education Board
  • The land at Ferryfield was sold in 1981 (East) and 1987 (West) by the Merchant Company
THE BOARDING HOUSE TRUST
  • Set up after 1914-1918 war
  • Purpose to create War Memorial to FPs killed in Great War
  • Registered 22/12/1933
  • Purchased 12 Buckingham Terrace
  • The assets were sold and transferred to the Melville College Trust [1976] (now the Memorial Fund)
MELVILLE COLLEGE TRUST
  • Set up in 1947
  • Partly as a memorial to those killed or wounded in 1939-1945 war, and partly to receive additional legacies
  • The Trust supported dependents of FP’s killed / wounded in war, provided financial assistance to Melville College, and/or for any purpose directly/indirectly connected with Boarding House and playing fields
  • It also administered smaller funds – Alistair Leslie Memorial Fund, WR Annan Memorial Fund, Connell Fund, Cockburn Prize Fund and Wight Rutherford Awards.
  • 2 further funds also existed – John Walker Prize Fund and Tom Sturrock Prize Fund
The Melville College School buildings at Melville Street were sold by the Merchant Company Education Board, and proceeds used to enhance the School facilities at Queensferry Road.

 

THE GOVERNORS OF MELVILLE COLLEGE TRUST [1976]
  • Set up in 1976
  • The assets were amalgamated from –
  • Melville College Trust (original fund from 1947)
  • The Boarding House Trust
  • The general funds from Melville College at closure of School (excluding heritable and moveable properties and expenses of liquidation)
  • Alistair Leslie Memorial Prize Fund
  • WR Annan Memorial Prize Fund
  • Connell Prize Fund
  • Cockburn Prize Fund
  • Wight Rutherford Awards Fund
  • John Walker Prize Fund
  • Tom Sturrock Prize Fund
  • The total of these assets formed the Memorial Fund

Large legacies from James Wight Rutherford in 1987, and then Colin Young in year 2000, led to the creation of 2 additional funds (Wight Rutherford and Colin Young) and along with the original fund are now all governed under the Melville College umbrella.  The original fund created in 1976 is known as the Memorial Fund.

MELVILLE COLLEGE TRUST (SCIO)

  • Established in 2024 to modernise the Trust’s governance and more accurately reflect its then current operation
  • All of the assets of the 1976 Trust were transferred to the SCIO
  • Three endowment funds were transferred from the 1976 Trust to the SCIO, namely the Wight Rutherford Fund, the Melville Memorial Fund and the Colin Young Bequest Fund.