Posted on 13th January 2011
Las Vegas milliionaire William R Lindsay has reportedly left nearly $4m (£2.5m) to National Trust for Scotland, based on a love of the country he never visited.
Johanna Gurland, who raises funds for the National Trust for Scotland in the US, told The Scotsman newspaper that Lindsay had not visited Scotland but was inspired to donate because of a passion for the country's history. "Like many Americans he had a fantasy of Scotland based on the movie, Brigadoon and not too much else," though Lindsay is believed to also have had an ancestral connection with Scotland.
The donation will be a major boost to the National Trust for Scotland’s legacy income. In its last annual report, showing figures to the end of February 2010, its legacy income was £5.9 million. If this income remained the same this year, the ‘anonymous’ donation would represent 43% of its legacy income.
In the National Trust for Scotland’s financial report, chief executive, Kate Mavor, says: “It is important to realise, however, that although the results for 2009-10 are greatly improved, they disguise the underlying imbalance between regular, predictable income and the combined cost of running the Trust and properly conserving the assets in our care. Our recovery is fragile, particularly given the likelihood that the full effect of the recession and public sector expenditure cuts have yet to be felt in Scotland.”
Lindsay’s previous donations to the National Trust for Scotland include contributions to projects at Culzean Castle and the Burns centre in Alloway.
In 2000, he gave £1.2m to the University of Glasgow to fund the William R Lindsay Chair in Health Policy and Economic Evaluation. A University spokesperson said that he had called up out of the blue in 1998 asking how much it would cost to fund a professorship
