The Trust was set up by the Will of Miss M E Swinton Paterson who died on 26 October 1989.
Not many details about Miss Swinton Paterson’s life and interests are known other than that she worked as a cookery demonstrator at the Edinburgh School of Cookery in Atholl Crescent in the late 1930s and that she was a member of Warrender Parish Church and then, when Warrender closed, of Mayfield Church. Late in her life, Miss Swinton Paterson inherited a substantial sum of money from a relation and, not having any direct descendants herself, she decided that the residue of her estate should be used for the benefit of others.
The objectives of the Trust are the support of charities in Scotland, specifically including schemes of the Church in Scotland.
The Trustees have a wide range of interests in charitable work in Scotland and good knowledge of the work of the Church of Scotland. For one of them, Miss Swinton Paterson was the first non-family member to visit her when she was a baby! The Trust Secretary is from Lindsays WS and advises the other Trustees on governance, management and legal issues.
The Trust’s holdings were valued at approximately £0.77M as at November 2022 and the Trustees distribute around £30,000 per year in grants to charities. Most of the Trust’s investments are managed by CCLA Investment Management Ltd.