SIR ERNEST CASSEL EDUCATIONAL TRUST

Patron: The Countess Mountbatten of Burma, C.B.E.

 

History of the Trust.
   
 

The Trust was set up in 1919 by Sir Ernest Cassel, the distinguished financier and philanthropist, with a

 

capital of £500,000.  Herbert Asquith, Arthur Balfour and Lord Haldane were among the first Trustees.

Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust

  

What we do.

The original aims of the Trust were the support of adult education, the higher education of women and the

 

teaching of 'commerce' at university level.  Substantial capital grants were made initially to women's colleges

 

at Oxford and Cambridge and to London University for the endowment of Chairs at the LSE.  When

Mountbatten Memorial Grants.

Edwina Mountbatten became a Trustee in 1948, the Trust's interests began to turn increasingly towards the

  Commonwealth, particularly in the field of higher education, with financial help being offered to
  Commonwealth students in the United Kingdom.  On her death in 1960, these grants were named the

Post Doctoral Travel Grants.

 Edwina Mountbatten Memorial Grants.  In the same year, her daughter, Lady Brabourne (now Countess 
  Mountbatten of Burma) became a Trustee and was Chairman of the Trustees from 1969 until 2005.
   

Other Grants.

 The grants to Commonwealth students encountering unforeseen financial difficulty, in their final year, were
  renamed the Mountbatten Memorial Grants, following the assassination of Earl Mountbatten by the IRA in
 

1979.  They now account for nearly three quarters of the Trust's annual expenditure  on grants.  The

History of the Trust.

'block grant' scheme was adopted in 1983, whereby currently ten universities receive an annual grant

  which they disburse on the Trust's behalf.  Provision is also made for funds to offer to students at institutions
  not included in the 'block grant' scheme.
   
  Similarly, in the same year, the British Academy took over the responsibility for the awards and
  administration of the Trust's overseas research grants in the language, literature, and civilisation of other countries.
   
 

A Mountbatten Memorial Award was instituted in 1984 at Christ's College, Cambridge towards the support of

  an outstanding Commonwealth postgraduate student, chosen by the Master and Fellows.

E-mail casseltrust@btinternet.com                                Registered Charity Number 313820                                            Last revised 11 January, 2010