Bexhill Trust celebrates 100 yearswith a special Centenary Award...

Back in 1917 the Bexhill Borough Council founded the Bexhill Trust to provide for the relief of poverty, the advancement of education and any other Bexhill charitable cause. It is a Charity that continues to support Bexhill citizens today.

Rother District Councillor Brian Kentfield, Chairman of the Bexhill Trust says 1917 was a year dominated by the events of the First World War. “There was the capture of Baghdad by British and Commonwealth forces; the costly Battles of Messines, Cambrai, Ypres and Passchendale on the Western Front in France; British allied troops entered Jerusalem; the Women’s Land Army was formed; King George V changed the name of the Royal Family from ‘Saxe-Coburg- Gotha’ to ‘Windsor’ and locally Canadian soldiers were billeted at Cooden Camp, Bexhill Museum was requisitioned as a medical centre and the first policewoman appointed in Sussex was stationed at Bexhill.”

Cllr Kentfield says in the hundred years since the Bexhill Trust was founded they have donated hundreds of thousands of pounds. “Because of the change in the value of money since 1917, it is difficult to provide a comparison of the amount of financial relief the Trust has provided in Bexhill over its 100 year existence,” he said. “But, as an example, over the last ten years, the Trust has donated nearly £40,000 to deserving cases in Bexhill. Aggregated over the 100 years of its existence and taking into account the change in the relative purchasing power of the pound, the comparative total of the Trust’s donations to Bexhill over that time will be in the region of one million pounds.”

The Trust comprises of nine Trustees appointed by Rother District Council (as successor to Bexhill Borough Council) who consider and determine the applications for assistance presented to them.

To commemorate the Trust’s one hundred years of charitable giving the Trustees have founded a ‘Bexhill Trust Centenary Award’ and invite local youth groups to apply for the ‘Award’ of up to £100. Applicants are requested to state how they propose to use the Award on the application forms which are available from the Clerk to the Bexhill Trust, Town Hall, Bexhill, TN39 3JX or email: [email protected] Award. For more information call Cllr Kentfield, or Tony Lee, Clerk to the Bexhill Trust 01424 210578.