Robert’s Will was published by his executors in The Times on 07
December 1976. It was the first mentioned that day and read;
Latest Wills
Residue to establish Research fund.
Mr. Robert Le Rossignol of Beaconsfield left £141,333 net. After various
bequests, he left the residue to University College London to establish a
research fund to be known in memory of his wife.
Robert’s last wish was that the residue of his estate was to be given to
University College Hospital Medical School to establish a Research Fund to
be known as the Emily Le Rossignol Fellowship Fund. An Award Committee
structure was suggested in the Will which, ‘as far as possible’ he would like
realised. The Committee was to use the income generated from the Fund to
encourage research at a Post-Doctoral level into some aspect of the ‘arthritic
condition’ and almost forty years after Robert’s passing this Fund still exists.
This final act of benefaction in Robert’s life inevitably brings us back to
Chirnside’s transcript, because for of all the material in the twelve pages of
typewritten script, there is one illuminating sentence. On a number of
occasions in this work we have quoted from Chirnside’s Obituary of Robert,
especially the phrase ‘I hope I have been able to make use of some of my
rewards to help those less fortunate’. But that is not what is recorded in the
transcript. Rather it was ‘I hope I have been able to make proper and prudent
use of my rewards, and I have tried to help some others less fortunate …’.
With the passing of their sons and with neither daughters-in-law nor
grandchildren, Robert and Emily were generous with their monies within the
family. But this sentence suggests that they felt they were just the custodians
of their wealth, and that that it should be ‘consumed’, not selfishly, but for
the good of the weak and vulnerable thereby mitigating the brutal circumstances by which it had been obtained. And today, anyone learning of Robert
and Emily’s benefaction over the years couldn’t possibly disagree that their
distribution of these rewards was indeed ‘prudent, proper’ and a credit to the
humanity of the couple.
Shortly after Robert’s funeral, in a letter written to Clement dated 31 July
1976 by Gordon Hope-Morley, Chairman of the Council and Hon.
Treasurer of the DGAA, the Council of Management expressed their deepest
sympathy to the family and their grateful thanks for the gift to Merlewood
and the ‘Le Rossignol Fund’ at Penn, both of which would be ‘a continuing
commemoration’ of the life of Clement’s Uncle and Aunt. Prophetically, the
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
491
December 1976. It was the first mentioned that day and read;
Latest Wills
Residue to establish Research fund.
Mr. Robert Le Rossignol of Beaconsfield left £141,333 net. After various
bequests, he left the residue to University College London to establish a
research fund to be known in memory of his wife.
Robert’s last wish was that the residue of his estate was to be given to
University College Hospital Medical School to establish a Research Fund to
be known as the Emily Le Rossignol Fellowship Fund. An Award Committee
structure was suggested in the Will which, ‘as far as possible’ he would like
realised. The Committee was to use the income generated from the Fund to
encourage research at a Post-Doctoral level into some aspect of the ‘arthritic
condition’ and almost forty years after Robert’s passing this Fund still exists.
This final act of benefaction in Robert’s life inevitably brings us back to
Chirnside’s transcript, because for of all the material in the twelve pages of
typewritten script, there is one illuminating sentence. On a number of
occasions in this work we have quoted from Chirnside’s Obituary of Robert,
especially the phrase ‘I hope I have been able to make use of some of my
rewards to help those less fortunate’. But that is not what is recorded in the
transcript. Rather it was ‘I hope I have been able to make proper and prudent
use of my rewards, and I have tried to help some others less fortunate …’.
With the passing of their sons and with neither daughters-in-law nor
grandchildren, Robert and Emily were generous with their monies within the
family. But this sentence suggests that they felt they were just the custodians
of their wealth, and that that it should be ‘consumed’, not selfishly, but for
the good of the weak and vulnerable thereby mitigating the brutal circumstances by which it had been obtained. And today, anyone learning of Robert
and Emily’s benefaction over the years couldn’t possibly disagree that their
distribution of these rewards was indeed ‘prudent, proper’ and a credit to the
humanity of the couple.
Shortly after Robert’s funeral, in a letter written to Clement dated 31 July
1976 by Gordon Hope-Morley, Chairman of the Council and Hon.
Treasurer of the DGAA, the Council of Management expressed their deepest
sympathy to the family and their grateful thanks for the gift to Merlewood
and the ‘Le Rossignol Fund’ at Penn, both of which would be ‘a continuing
commemoration’ of the life of Clement’s Uncle and Aunt. Prophetically, the
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
491