Background 
The Royal Wanstead Foundation (RWF) is a registered charity and the modern successor of an institution founded in 1827 as the Infant Orphan Asylum by the Victorian philanthropist Dr Andrew Reed. It was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1843.  Known for many years as the Royal Infant Orphanage, the charity is now regulated under the legal title Royal Wanstead School, granted by the Royal Wanstead School Act 1939, by a further Act in 1959, by statutory instruments in 1955 and 1971, and a Charity Commissioner’s Scheme of 1991.

Following the closure of the Royal Wanstead  School at Snaresbrook in 1971 (and the closure of the girls’ school at Sawbridgeworth two years earlier), the Foundation continues the work begun by Andrew Reed 144 years ago, by supporting children at a wide range of appropriate boarding schools up and down the UK.

The RWF  seeks to Give Children a Better Start.

What the Royal Wanstead Foundation does
The RWF helps to provide boarding education for children with either one or no parent whose home circumstances are seriously prejudicial to their normal development and where no other suitable care is available. This situation can arise through: parental death or ill-health; divorce or separation; or abnormal or adverse home conditions. In all cases, the Foundation seeks to establish that boarding education would be the correct solution for the child.

The RWF seeks to maintain reserves sufficient to sustain the Foundation’s charitable work indefinitely, recognising: that school fees have tended to increase faster than inflation; that  Stock Market investments are cyclical; and that medium-term continuity in grant-making is necessary in order to avoid disturbing the security of the children whose education the Foundation supports.

View Annual Report

30 years since RWS
It is 30 years since the Royal Wanstead School closed its doors for the last time. It was perhaps the single most dramatic event in the remarkable history of this Foundation since it was established by Dr Reed in 1827. That fine building at Wanstead was the Foundation and it was difficult to imagine how the charity could hope to survive without it.

But 30 years have passed, the old school has become Snaresbrook Crown Court, and the Royal Wanstead Foundation  has positively thrived as a modern charity. Today, it supports 363 children at 146 boarding schools in England and Wales. After 130 years of managing its own schools, the Foundation has a well-defined new role in a new era.   

The RWF  increased its assets  (originally just the proceeds from the sale of the school  building)  and its income during a long period of stock market boom. It has thus been able to increase the number of children it helps to support, well beyond the totals in the last years of its own schools.

In order for the Royal Wanstead Foundation indefinitely to continue its work supporting  children, it needs – over the long-term – to safeguard its capital and match its expenditure with  the income from investments and  donations. Spending above this from the capital in anything other than the odd exceptional year would quickly erode the income  in subsequent years and would, therefore, risk the long term future of the Foundation itself.

The key long term objective is to continue this overall expansion of  income, expenditure and therefore the number of children supported because the need for the RWF’s work is greater than it has ever been – and at a time when revenue from  stock market and other investments has been decreasing. To ensure this continued expansion, therefore, the Foundation needs to attract more revenue from voluntary donations, legacies and subscriptions.

How RWF works
The essence of RWF’s approach is to co-ordinate ‘packages’ of financial support for each  ‘foundationer’ (pupil), involving usually three or four other organisations and often the chosen school itself. The organisations with which we work most frequently are the Reedham Trust, Buttle Trust, and  the Joint Educational Trust, with a range of other charities being involved in specific cases. RWF typically pays about 25% of the fees of each child it supports. 

The projected cost to RWF of existing and new Foundationers for the year to 31 July, 2002 is £640,000. Costs anticipated to be incurred  by RWF to fund these  children  to complete their education amount to approximately £4.6 million.  

The following table (from the audited accounts)  shows how the RWF is supporting 363 children at an annual cost of £663,881 – a substantial increase from the 110 children supported at a cost of £114,311 in 1980: 

Schools supported by RWF
The following schools account for an aggregate of almost 50% of all Royal Wanstead Foundationers. Six of these 10 schools (*) operate foundation schemes of their own: 

 Profile of ‘foundationers’ (as at 31 July 2001) 

A cost-effective charity
Royal Wanstead Foundation is a registered charity (no. 310916) and a very cost-effective one. Just 12% of its total revenue is accounted for by administrative costs. It shares premises with Reed’s School in Cobham and has an office staff of just four people, only one of which is full-time.

The Board of Governors, which manages the Foundation, is unpaid. Three of the eight Governors are former pupils of the Royal Wanstead School – the RWF Chairman Colin Morrison, former Chairman Derek Thackray, and John Spinks.

The charity is tightly-managed and does not, for example, spend any significant sums on fund-raising. The  Foundation’s recent 30^th Anniversary Appeal, for example, involved the expenditure by the RWF only on  postage and envelopes, the printed material having been donated.

The Foundation is regulated by the Charities Commission and its Annual Report and Accounts are available on request.

Why we need your help
The RWF needs your help because hundreds more children need our help.  The need for our support is increasing at a time when school fees are rising much faster than inflation and when investment incomes are falling.

Why you might want to help us
You have accessed this web site either because you are a former pupil of the Royal  Wanstead School (at Wanstead ,  Sawbridgeworth or, during wartime, at Ingatestone or  South Weald )  or a more recent Foundationer, or are concerned about child welfare.

As a former pupil or Foundationer, you might feel strongly how much the Foundation was able to help you and how valuable is our work on behalf of children in the same or worse circumstances. You know more about what we do and what we can achieve than anyone else.

 We have literally thousands of examples of how our work in recent years has really Helped Children Get a Better Start.  We can show you how we work and how we can make your donations work hard for this important cause.

How you can help us help these children
There are many ways you can contribute to the RWF’s work, and if you are a UK taxpayer, such support can  be tax-effective.

Here are a few ways you can help us:

• Make a donation, either a single sum or an annual standing order from your bank

• Make a legacy in favour of the RWF in your will.

• Get your company or employer to make a charitable donation to the RWF. Again, this can qualify for tax relief

To make a donation or for further details, please contact:
Rosemary Brotherwood, Clerk, Royal Wanstead Foundation, Sand Lane, Cobham, Surrey KT11 2ES. Tel: 01932-868622.  Email: rwfclerk@aol.com

For further details on the RWF’s work and how you can support it,
please contact Colin Morrison (RWS:1957-69), Chairman, RWF,
on colin@morrison-uk.com

Page Last Updated: 03/01/02
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