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LYNNE GRUNDY MEMORIAL TRUST
116 Lady Margaret Road
London N19 5EX
020 7697 0881
www.lynnegrundytrust.org.uk
Charity Commission Registered Number 1072150
"The Lynne Grundy Memorial Trust is playing an important role in opening doors for its recipients - myself included - which would otherwise remain closed." (2006 award winner )
Dear Friend,
Another action packed year for the Trust, including all the upheaval of a move; please note our new registered postal address and phone number as above. The website address of course remains the same.
I'm delighted to report yet another exciting year in the awards department; our six award winners fully justified our now very high expectations: Yuliana Dresvina, a PhD student from Cambridge was awarded funds to allow her to travel to London and Paris to study manuscripts for her comprehensive interdisciplinary study of St Margaret of Antioch. Abdullah Alger, half way through his PhD studies at Manchester University, was awarded funds to enable him to travel to London and Oxford to study manuscripts essential to his work on punctuation and other marks made by the Exeter scribe. Deborah Crawford, in the third year of her PhD at Sheffield was awarded funds to enable her to travel to Iceland to present her paper on the application of technology to the survey of medieval traditional narration, with special reference to St Patrick, to the 'Geography and Saints Cults' conference at Holar in Iceland in June 2006. Karolina Ploska, at the mid point of her PhD at Cardiff was awarded funds to enable her to work full time on an important project contributing to the safeguarding of AngloSaxon archeological monuments. Mary Rambaran-Olm, studying for her PhD at Glasgow was awarded funds to enable her to present her new research in a paper on the lacunae in the Exeter Book to the Selim XVIII Conference at Malaga with the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature. Donata Kick was awarded funds towards the publication in book form of her recently awarded PhD from Durham University on the use of Doomsday signs in AngloSaxon England, and Continental cross-fertilization of ideas.
Each of these award winners presented us with an exemplary application, and ample evidence of the importance of their work and the real contribution they are making to the body of knowledge in the field. But we were most impressed by their real commitment and determination in the face of sometimes extreme difficulties. It can't be easy to complete the research necessary for a PhD while working full-time in a betting shop or waiting tables, but our applicants annually renew our faith in the future of the arts and give us stirring examples of determination to succeed in their chosen field. We trustees feel honoured to be able to pass on our donors' support of their important work, and to give them some well-deserved encouragement. Their response this year has been as moving as ever; with the relatively small amounts of money we are able to give, usually a few hundred pounds, they achieve so much. As they thank us at the Trust, we thank you, the Trust's supporters, wholeheartedly.
"I hope to be able to return the Trust's kindness in the form of a donation once I am in a position of full-time employment. The Trust's award is certainly taking me a few steps closer to this goal." (2006 award winner )
On the subject of donations, we have again this year received significant donations from the International Society of AngloSaxonists and the Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland, both also sending us very encouraging messages of support. And our regular individual donors have been equally generous. At the last meeting of trustees, our treasurer Peter Mathews (Lynne's brother) was saying how very important regular donations are for the Trust, on whatever scale. Ten pounds a year or three pounds a month, especially if it is given by covenant or direct debit (with gift aid ) is doubly valuable for the Trust because we can claim the tax back on it (which adds up surprisingly well) and we can include it in our budget, can in fact count on it, so we know how many awards we will be able to make next year. Most years we make awards totalling around £2000; donations at present are usually nearer the £600 mark.
Clearly, increasing valid demands on the Trust's funds erode the fund significantly. We need more donations in order to be able to keep going. (I think here it's worth noting that the Trust is run on a shoestring; of every £10 donated, £9.65 goes directly to awards; the other 35p is used for mailing publicity cards to universities and conferences, and sending the awards. We have no other expenses, and every donation is targetted in order that people can achieve projects of significant importance in our culture which they otherwise couldn't realise, for want of funding. This often extends to students in real financial hardship, an increasing reality for them.)
If you donate regularly, or occasionally, we simply thank you, and say please keep it up, ideally through the gift aid scheme (please see note at end). If you haven't donated recently, we do understand what a multiplicity of demands there are for your money from vital charities, but we would like to ask you to support us if you can, regularly if you can, in whatever way you can, especially if you share Lynne's particular concerns.
Next year (2007) is the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Trust. We will be making extra efforts to raise funds to keep the Trust's work going for another decade, and we hope to be able to give a very special bumper crop of awards in 2008, which will be the 10th Lynne Grundy Memorial Trust Awards. Thank you for all you help in what we have achieved as a great memorial for Lynne; we couldn't do it without you!
"It was, and is, a tremendous honour and privilege that you selected me to receive one of the awards this year, and I do not take this distinction lightly. Your dedication to maintaining Dr Grundy's legacy is valuable and I am a testimony to the fact that she is still touching lives today." (2006 award winner.)
With all good wishes from us all at the Trust,
Liz Mathews, and the trustees
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