Barrow Cadbury Fund personal

MS 1579/2/13

Barrow Cadbury Fund personal

1940 - 2007

See also Barrow Cadbury Fund annuitants' books, MS 1579/1/3/4.

Copyright: Barrow Cadbury Trust and others

Partially Closed (Data Protection Act)

Organisations involved: Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd., Barrow Cadbury Fund.

Previous title and/or title variation: personal; personal and subscriptions.

Related grant categories: Society of Friends and churches, education, peace and international relations.

Dates of use: 1924/1925 to current.

Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): n/a.

The Barrow Cadbury Fund was established as a benevolent fund in 1924 to allow Barrow and Geraldine Cadbury to make subscriptions and donations to organisations not registered as charities and to deserving individuals. Initially payments to individuals took the form of annuities (effectively supplementary pensions), often to former Cadbury household staff, Friends in need or others involved in good works. During the Fund's first year it agreed to grant two annuities totalling £600 out of an annual expenditure of £5,775. Ten years later, in 1933/1934, the number of annuitants had risen to just five.

In 1940/1941 the Fund began recording small personal grants and annuities together in its annual accounts. For this year there were 68 total recipients receiving between £2 and £500 each for a total commitment of just over £5,000. The higher figures in this list generally correspond with annuity payments though these are not explicitly recorded. Subsequently the Fund elected to record annuities and small personal grants separately for ease of reference.

A legal challenge to the validity and tax status of benevolent funds led to the winding up the Barrow Cadbury Fund in 1952 and the creation of a new benevolent company, the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. that same year. During its last year the accounts of the benevolent fund lists payment to four annuitants totalling just over £200 as well as 63 small personal grants totalling approximately £3,600. Ongoing annuities and small personal gifts were transferred from the defunct benevolent fund to the new benevolent company.

The annuities category dates to the establishment of the first Fund, making Barrow Cadbury Fund personal annuities, gifts and grants the oldest heading used by the Cadbury Trusts. Administratively, Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants were not always treated as an independent category and were often appended to the Society of Friends and other churches heading, reflecting the number of personal grants made to Friends. In the 1973/1974 to 1974/1975 annual report of the Cadbury Trusts Barrow Cadbury Fund personal expenditure is included with the Society of Friends and other churches in a summation of grant spending by category. However, Fund spending is omitted from the detailed breakdown of Society of Friends and other churches accounts. From the mid-1970s forward annual reports also include the number of personal grants made in each grant category with corresponding expenditure.

The first Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grant files appear in the 1960s though some of their contents date back to 1940. These files relate to annuitants payments as well as small personal grants for travel or education. Files from this grant classification were weeded by Trust staff during the 1980s and 1990s and do not represent a complete sequence. Further details can be found in the disposal lists included in the collection.

A perusal of Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants from the mid to late 20th century underscores the personal relationship between annuitants and the Cadbury family. James Alex Branson served as Barrow Cadbury's driver, Frank Duffy served as a warden at the Southfield Hostel, Doris and Arthur Gibbs were known to the family through their involvement in the Hartshill Meeting and Beatrice Jewels came before Geraldine Cadbury in the Juvenile Court before she was hired as a cook in the Cadbury household. Following the appointment of professional staff at the Cadbury Trusts in the late 1960s a decision was taken to reduce the number of small personal grants made through the Fund. The pruning of this category did not do away with ongoing Fund commitments but did markedly decrease their number.

Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants were not assigned a numerical reference under Anthony Wilson's classification scheme for grant subjects. Occasionally these grants will include the file reference number for a related heading, usually 'four' for education or 'one' for Society of Friends and other churches. There was a considerable degree of overlap between grants made in these three areas, particularly for education grants to support students attending Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.

In 1983/1984 the category 'personal' was introduced to refer to Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants of all types. Total expenditure under this heading amounted to £19,253, second only to Fund grants made under housing, land and community planning. Annual expenditure on Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants and annuities fluctuated between £10,000 and £20,000 during the 1980s and early 1990s. Following the merger of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust with the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust in 1994 Barrow Cadbury Fund personal grants began to increase to a high of 87 grants totalling £229,184 in 2001/2002. The Cadbury Trusts annual report for 2003/2004 records a marked decrease in this expenditure to £71,500 plus an additional £6,671 for annuitants. The use of 'personal' or a minor variation of this category heading continued until 2004/2005 though its informal use continues for personal grants and a small number of outstanding annuities paid through the Fund.