National Trust launches £7.1m Churchill appeal
Melanie May | 13 September 2016 | News
The National Trust has launched a fundraising appeal to ‘reinvigorate’ Winston Churchill’s legacy at Chartwell in Kent, and purchase some of his prize possessions.
The charity is seeking to raise £7.1m, which will be used to secure many personal items that belonged to Churchill and to enable a better telling of the Churchill story across the property, along with increased access to the collections, and the opening of family rooms that have never been seen by the public.
A large part of the funds will be used to acquire hundreds of heirlooms, many of international significance, that have been on long term loan to Chartwell. The items include Churchill’s library of inscribed books, medallions, gifts and awards that he received from around the world, as well as his Nobel Prize in Literature and his wooden speech box.
The appeal is being launched to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Chartwell being opened to the public, and the National Trust is using this anniversary focus in the campaign to ask members and supporters, as well as other charitable institutions and public bodies to help it reach the appeal target.
Dame Helen Ghosh, Director-General for the National Trust, said:
“In this fiftieth anniversary year of Chartwell opening to the public we have a focus for one of the biggest appeals we have ever made to safeguard a collection of this kind and ensure that we can continue to tell Churchill’s story for the next fifty years and beyond. We hope that our members and supporters, public bodies and charitable institutions will help us to do this and to keep Churchill’s memory alive at the home he loved.”
The Trust hopes to raise the funds by January 2017, and donations can be made online at nationaltrust.org.uk/chartwell-revive or by phone on 0344 800 1895.
Advertisement
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.