Legacies
All bequests to Downside are exempt from Inheritance Tax. Make personal bequests up to the Tax threshold and leave the rest to Downside rather than the Chancellor.
In June 2011 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued proposals to encourage charitable giving on death. For deaths on or after 6 April 2012, it is proposed that estates that include charitable legacies of at least 10% of the net estate (after the current nil rate band of £325k) will benefit from a 36% rate of IHT (compared with the main IHT rate of 40%). More information can be found here.
We are enormously grateful to all our supporters and we are committed to making your gift as valuable as possible to us as a charity. To remember Downside School in your will you must quote our Registered Charity Number 1184700.
The uncertainty of costs in later life for you and your loved ones can make it difficult to make donations for causes you care about, however, many people make charitable donations as part of their estate planning.
- A specific bequest can be a fixed sum or a percentage of your residual estate
- A reversionary legacy passes to Downside after the death of any dependents
- A conditional legacy names Downside as the beneficiary should your heirs not survive you.
The knowledge that this support will come cushions us against the enormous responsibility of maintaining our historic buildings and providing much-needed capital to support bursaries. Click on the image below to view our legacy brochure or click here for the pledge form.

Petre Society
Members of the Petre Society have all pledged a legacy to Downside. We are very grateful to the members and every year they are invited to join us on St Gregory’s Day for mass in the Abbey Church followed by a convivial lunch with the members of the Monastic Community.
Members
Leslie R Addington | (B41) |
Rudolph I Agnew | (S51) |
Philip Allott | (C54) |
Martin T Appleby | (S50) |
Charles M Atchley | (B58) |
Stanley E Ball | (R58) |
David F Barnett | (C55) |
Eddy Body | |
Patrick M Branigan | (R58) |
Alexander J Brown | (B58) |
Michael Callender | (C56) |
John Carter | (C63) |
Robert Cattell | (S62) |
David Clark | (S68) |
Augustine Clark | |
Tim Coghlan | (U65) |
Mark-Anthony Conti | (S81) |
Martin D Cuss | (S58) |
Brian Donovan | (C53) |
James Fairrie | (R65) |
Michael F FitzGerald | (S54) |
Hans G Fleischner | (C45) |
Sean Fox-Slater | (R71) |
Robert F Gibbons | (B54) |
Mr & Mrs Gore | |
Anthony J Greenwood | (U79) |
Christopher Grievson | (Ra62) |
William E Griffiths | (S71) |
Edward Hallinan | (R55) |
Bevill Harrison | (S58) |
Mr & Mrs Harwood | |
Mark Heath | (R62) |
Tom Heath | (R68) |
Sean P Hughes | (S59) |
Edward E Hutton | (B70) |
John Jackson | (R61) |
Oliver L Jefferson | (R72) |
Ian M Jessiman | (R49) |
Edwin Kemp | (R63) |
Michael Kennedy | (S55) |
Mervyn R Langran | (B49) |
David J Lawrence | (R54) |
Michael Leeming | (C74) |
John Ludlow | (C82) |
Michael P MacKenzie | (B55) |
Nicholas Mander | (S67) |
Byard McHugh | (B55) |
James H Midwood | (C47) |
David R Morgan | (R60) |
Ian A Norrington | (B54) |
John Nye | |
Michael P Paine | (S58) |
Martin Powys-Lybbe | (B57) |
Edward L Pryce | (S57) |
John E Scanlan | (S54) |
Aylward E Shorter | (B50) |
Nigel Sill | (S65) |
Mark W Steed | (C71) |
Michael Stokes | (B54) |
Thomas Sutcliffe | |
Christopher Tanfield | |
Chris von Patzelt | (S66) |
John Webb | (U60) |
Daphne Westlake | |
Michael Weston-Burt | (R59) |
Charles B Wilcox | (S81) |
Charles Wiles | (C66) |
Elizabeth A Williams | |
Peter Wilson | (B59) |
Peter Wright | (C53) |
If you have any questions about how to become a member, please feel free to contact us:
Mrs Jessica Newman, Director of Development
Email: jnewman@downside.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)1761 235194