Obituary: Elizabeth Liddell OBE
Howard Lake | 27 June 2014 | News
Elizabeth Liddell OBE, who re-established children’s charity Plan in the UK, has died after a long fight with cancer.
She was involved in charity work from a young age.
Plan had begun in London in the 1930s but was forced to move to the US during the Second World War due to bombing. Liddell was instrumental in setting up Plan International, then known as Foster Parents Plan, in the UK again in the 1980s. She became its first national Director in the UK.
She then moved to help establish Charity Solutions in 1988 to tackle the absence of specialist management training and support for charity staff. She offered counselling and practical advice to a wide range of charities large and small.
Liddell received her OBE for her charitable work in India. After becoming Chief Executive of Arpana Charitable Trust UK in 1992 she led the charity to help tens of thousands of people in the poorest communities in northern India. She persuaded HRH the Prince of Wales to support the charity as its royal patron, and recruited a distinguished board of trustees and other patrons.
She was Chair of The Forthright Group, an informal association for those working with and for charities, and co-founder of Charity 2000 which brought together senior people in the sector for a networking lunch. The last speaker was William Shawcross of the Charity Commission.
One of her former Plan colleagues said of her:
“Elizabeth was a source of both inspiration and wisdom, and a person for whom I had a great deal of respect, and our friendship continued long after both of us had moved on from Plan”.
Raghunandan Gaind, Chair of Arpana, added: “She brought to her work an infectious enthusiasm, shrewd judgement and a formidable tenacity”.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.