£400k donated to causes by trust set up in memory of Nairn woman
A trust set up in memory of a Nairn woman saw more than £400,000 donated to causes in the community after it was wound up in 2021.
Nini Isobel Stewart passed away in 1999, leaving a sum of money to her sister Anne Mackintosh and she used it to set up the trust in her memory.
"That's when the Nini Isobel Stewart Trust came about," said Kyle Mackintosh (48), whose father John Bain was among the trustees until it was dissolved with the money donated to charity.
"It had nearly £400,000 in capital. This was how it had to be managed: the capital was not to be touched for the first 21 years, and the interests, the gains and share increases were to be spent on four main charities: the RSPB, Lepra, the Royal British Geological Society and Women of the World."
Each year, the trustees gave a part of that money to these charities, which amounted to roughly £200,000 over two decades.
Born and bred in Nairn, Nini Mackintosh was a maths teacher who then married David Stewart and they moved away to Malaya (what is now peninsular Malaysia), where he managed a rubber plantation called Seafield Estate near Kuala Lumpur. The right investment in Vodafone at a time when no one believed mobile phones would take off – and the money came from penny shares that grew in time. Her family said she was integral in setting up the Women's Institute in Malaya. She then returned as a maths teacher at Nairn Academy.
Anne Mackintosh was a nurse and she was among those who looked after those injured after the Manchester United plane crash – known as the Munich air disaster – in 1958. She was a big Manchester United fan. When she came back to Nairn she opened a sweetie shop in the High Street before retiring. She died around 15 years ago.
Twenty-one years after Nini's death, the trust was to be wound up and the money (around £408,000) was to be donated to registered charities chosen by the trustees.
Mr Stewart said it was great to be able to help local causes.
He said: "My father and other trustees were very keen that the money stayed in the local community, so they were donated to local causes, among which £49,000 went to Highland Hospice, £30,000 to the Nairnshire Farming Society and Auldearn Primary – where my wife and I went – got £20,000 last year. Other donations went to RNLI, Nairn Museum, the local Marie Curie branch and many more smaller charities."
The latest recipient was Auldearn Community Council, which received a donation of £10,000 earlier this month.
Its chairman Roger Milton said: "We'd like to share our feelings of great surprise and gratitude following the announcement of the bequest that has come our way.
"We are delighted that we will be able to support new initiatives in the village, help maintain the financial viability of our village halls and move forward on the second phase of our plan to clean up the recreation ground.
"It is becoming increasingly difficult to run an effective community council with the very small grant from the council and we have already had to boost our funds with a village fete and benefit from the generosity of local businesses such as Greens Nursery, who recently provided the flowers for our village planters for free.
"On behalf of the whole village, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Nini Isobel Stewart Trust and the extended Mackintosh family."
