About Florence Elizabeth Siebel
- Home
- About Us
History
On the 18th May 1990 Miss Siebel died aged 91.
By her Will she made the following provision.
‘ Subject to the payment of my debts funeral and testamentary expenses and any Capital Transfer Tax payable in respect of any part of my estate I GIVE the whole of the remainder of my estate (herein called ‘my residuary estate’) Upon trust to create a charity or trust filled as follows:
My trustees shall sell call in and convert into money the whole of my residuary estate and transfer the same to Trustees of a new charity to be known as ‘The Mary Elizabeth Siebel Charity’ in memory of my mother.
My Charity Trustees shall pay the income from such investments for the relief of such old people who are ill and unable adequately to look after themselves as they in their absolute discretion decide upon and who live within a radius of 12 miles of Newark Town Hall.
‘Old People’ shall mean any person of either sex over the age of 60’
The first trustees were to be Jean Dawson, Christopher Charles Dudley Hart and Barbara Dibb plus one representative from the Newark Branches of Age Concern, The Red Cross and the WRVS.
And so a new charity had been founded. —Miss Siebel left approximately £1.3m.
How did Miss Siebel, a teacher at the Lilley and Stone High School in Newark, come to have such a large sum of money? For that we must look at her family history.
THE SIEBEL FAMILY (THANKS TO MISS JEAN DAWSON – WHO TAUGHT WITH HER AND HELPED LOOK AFTER HER IN THE LATTER YEARS)
Born 12th April 1899 in Cheshire. Her father’s family came from Alsace – Lorraine, on the border between France and Germany. She would have told you that one of her ancestors was a General in the French army and had fought with Napoleon Bonaparte. Her mother was English. Another of her ancestors, a Judge, signed with other Judges the death warrant of King Charles I. Her Father was orphaned at an early age and was brought up by an uncle in Alsace. He became an Import – Export agent and in about 1890 he travelled to Manchester on business and to become more fluent in English. From there he intended to travel from Liverpool to South America and probably set up business there, but fate intervened. He met Miss Siebel’s mother and they got married and settled in Cheshire. Two sons were born in the early 1890s, Harry and Jimmy. None of the family had any children.
From early days Miss Siebel was athletic. Horses, walking, skating on the flooded field behind the house. She went to school at Stockport High School where she developed much skill in hockey, tennis etc. In 1917 she went to Bedford Physical Education College, a high honour, as this was one of the two most prestigious places in England to receive such an education. She qualified in 1920 and accepted an appointment at Newark High School where she remained all her teaching life.
In pre- First World war years, the rights of women in everyday life were very different. For example, they had no vote and if they married, their rights to any assets were taken from them and became their husbands’ property! Miss Siebel vividly remembered a comfortably wealthy neighbour who married and her new husband promptly left her for his own ‘Lady love’, leaving her penniless and forced to ask for help from neighbours etc. This probably set the first seeds of an idea growing for Miss Siebel.
The First World War was difficult for the family as her father was treated as an alien (Alsace was at that time German), notwithstanding that he had lived in the country 20 years, his wife was English and his two sons were officers in the English Army.
The wealth to set up the trust
Sometime after World War I, her father met Mr Marks (later to develop Marks & Spencer’s). They became friendly and he loaned Mr Marks some money to help him expand from his stall. He later bought shares in the new company and, what with bonus issues and confidence in Marks’s ability, formed the beginnings of a very large holding in this company.
After the death of her parents and her brother Jimmy, Miss Siebel and her brother Harold decided to help a local builder in Cheshire to assist him through the Depression and he built one house after another for them, which were then let. In total between 18 — 20 houses were built and after Harold’s death she inherited all of them.
Her Mother
School holidays were always the opportunity to indulge her love of mountains climbing in the Cairngorms or the Alps, skiing and skating in the winter. In later years she came to regret the little time that she spent with her mother. At home there had always been a cheerful welcome and nothing but quiet acceptance of the flying visits of the three children. This indignity, as were those of the war, was accepted with quiet dignity by her mother. She therefore grew to have a great admiration towards her mother and this explains the dedication of the charity in memory of her mother.
Her Life
Miss Siebel worked all her life at Newark High School and many generation of girls remembered her with affection. Her motto in the gym was ‘As we stand and walk so shall we act’. At the mention of her name many an old girl would square their shoulders and stand tall!
The Trust
Miss Siebel did not wish her money to be spent on any kind of bricks and mortar but to be given as a help to those in need, especially to the elderly so that they can remain in their own homes for as long as possible.
The Trust meets once every two months to consider applications for help. There is an application form which applicants need to complete and have it countersigned by their doctor who confirms the state of their health and that what they are applying for would be beneficial for them.We then ask our Visitor, who with the Trust Secretary are part time and paid, to visit and give the trustees her opinion on the application. She also ascertains the details of the financial means of the applicant.
Grants will be made towards or for basic, essential provision in each case, where assistance from other bodies, statutory or otherwise, cannot be obtained. Grants cannot be retrospective or made on a regular basis and they are limited to one in any 12-month period except in exceptional circumstances.
