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'Penniless' widow leaves pound(s)6m [Herald, The (Scotland)]
[October 25, 2014]

'Penniless' widow leaves pound(s)6m [Herald, The (Scotland)]


(Herald, The (Scotland) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A WIDOW whose family were left penniless after fleeing Hong Kong at the start of the Second World War has left most of a pound(s)6 million fortune to charity.

Georgina Sutherland died in May this year aged 95 and has ordered the vast majority of her wealth be put into a charitable fund bearing her name.

Mrs Sutherland, who lived later life in Aberdeen, was born in Glasgow but raised in Hong Kong where their father had a civil engineering company. However, she and her mother escaped to Australia carrying just one suitcase before the Japanese invasion of the colony. Her father later died in a Hong Kong prison.



Mrs Sutherland found work as a secretary to support her and her mother but they struggled to find money for food and clothes.

She remained in Australia throughout the war and worked for the Hong Kong government who were in exile in Sydney.


After the war she returned to Hong Kong where she worked in civil service, eventually becoming secretary to the governor before meeting her husband Tom Scott Sutherland in 1948.

It has emerged she has set aside the majority of the fortune to allow good causes to benefit from her wealth.

The published will shows she left pound(s)346,000 to family and friends, but put the rest of her pound(s)6,149,722 fortune into the Ina Scott Sutherland Charitable Foundation.

Documents show she asked that the trust be allowed to choose charities to donate to and the size of the amounts given.

Mrs Sutherland had pound(s)324,386.50 held in a Bank of Scotland account.

She had a huge stocks and shares portfolio including 10,000 shares in drinks giant Diageo worth pound(s)187,775, 5000 shares in British American Tobacco worth pound(s)173,237 and she held 30,000 shares in telecom company BT worth a total of pound(s)112,065.

Mrs Sutherland spent most of her life supporting charities, in particular the Order of St John, which is dedicated to helping others through medical and rescue activities. She was named a Dame of St John in 1979.

After her death friends paid tribute to her, with one saying: "The charity work was her life but away from that she liked bridge, fine jewellery, art and Chinese culture and antiques.

"She was also an intrepid traveller, venturing happily to locations, including Chile, where she fearlessly ignored warnings about straying from the main roads and had to be escorted out of a tough area by a police officer worried for her safety.

"She also travelled to Antarctica aged 80 and went for a swim in the Antarctic Ocean, going out further than her other travellers.

"And at 84 she went back to Hong Kong to find her father's grave and a poppy is now laid there every year in his honour." (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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