£250,000 BY CHANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3574, 25 February 1914, Page 9

£250,000 BY CHANCE.

CHARITY WINDFALI

The death of a Harrow Schoolboy— Mr Geoffrey Charles Ansell, who was heir to a £300,000 estate, has resulted in an unexpected windfall of about £250,000 to London charities. Mr Ansell wos injured while tobogganing on the Cresta Run in Switzerland two years ago and has just died in London from the effects of the accident.

He was only 17, and the provisions made by the late Mr Charles Ansell in the event of his son dying a minor become operative. Briefly, they are that the estate is to be realised for the benefit of hospitals and other institutions in London, subject to bequests to relatives and friends and the payment of certain annuities (including one of £2OOO to Mrs Anse 1 !).

The bequests specificallly TnenHftnecl in the will include the following:—

£50,000 to King Edward’s-Hospita Fund. £25,000 to the National Society foi Prevention of Cruelty to Crild

ren. £25,000 to the Royal Society for Pre-

vention of Cruelty to animals. £IO,OOO each to Charing Cross, St Thomas’, St. Bartholomew’s Guy’s, St. George’s, Westmin ster, Middlesex, and Londoi Hospitals. £4,000 each to 18 other hospitals.

Should any sums remain after the specific bequests have been paid the trustees are empowered to devote them to any charitable objects they may think proper. Mr Charles Ansell’s fortune recalls a romance of the South African gold mining boom in 1895. At that time Mr Ansell was a member of the firm of Ansell, Mankiewiez and Tollerman, which reaped large profits from the boom. Mr Ansell lived in Sloane Street, and in 1905 ho purchased Minster House, Harpenden, Hertfordshire as a country residence. The transaction had hardly been completed when lie died at the age of 45. The son was a ward in Chancery.