Nancy Astor legacy lives on as trust keeps giving

A century after a charity was created by ground-breaking MP Nancy Astor, it is still changing lives in her city.

Lady Astor made history in 1919 as the first woman to take a seat in the House of Commons, representing Plymouth Sutton.

The Plymouth Astor Trust, founded by Lady Astor and her husband in 1925, has donated nearly £485,000 to causes across the city since 2006.

Children's Wishes Plymouth, which received £1,000 from the trust, was among a number of charities receiving grants from the trust at Lady Astor's former home on Plymouth Hoe on Tuesday.

Craig Lewis, from the charity, said: "We spend £100 on each child, so any donation we get goes straight to the children and £100 makes a massive difference."

Wayne Marshall, from St Luke's Hospice which also received £1,000, said: "If you translate that into the care that's provided for one individual and the support for their family, it means an awful lot."

Lady Astor's granddaughter, organic farmer Alice Astor, said: "It's wonderful to see so many local charities benefiting from the funds that they, you know, they brought in really to do that, to support Plymouth people. So I couldn't be happier."

Phil Sanders, of the Plymouth Astor Trust, summed up the family's impact: "I think it's impossible to even quantify what the Astor family between them did for Plymouth over a very long period of time.

"They invested in all sorts of buildings, they gave away money and they supported things. It is absolutely quite incredible when you look in detail at what they did."

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