ERNEST & MARJORIE FUDGE
Marjorie was born Miss Parker of Coates & Parker. She lived over the shop for many years and developed a keen interest in Warminster folk and their doings which never left her. Even towards the end of her life she could recall people and events from long before and would be happy to talk about them with her friends, usually adding a pungent comment of her own.
Before she was married, Marjorie worked at the old Warminster Telephone Exchange in the days when you picked up the telephone and asked an operator to put you through even for a local call. She used to cycle to work each day on her old upright bike in all weathers.
Ernest Fudge, originally a clerk with Lloyds Bank, came to work in the Warminster Branch. He found lodgings with Mrs. Parker, widowed at a young age. Not very long after that, Ernest and Marjorie married. The couple were not joiners and greatly enjoyed together the peace and beauty of their garden in Upper Marsh Road except for Saturdays, when they always walked around the corner to support Warminster Town Football Club, a chance to meet their friends and shout for their team.
Their marriage was never blessed with children. They had always intended to ” do something ” for Warminster and Warminster folk after their deaths.
Ernest died on 27th January 1985. It was Ernest’s wish to look after Marjorie and so his will left everything to her and made no provision for Warminster charity. But she decided to vary Ernest’s Will by setting up a Trust Fund for Warminster in his name starting with £20,000.
On 3rd December 1987 she created the original Trust “for such charitable purposes which shall benefit wholly or mainly the inhabitants of the town of Warminster as my Trustees may select”.
When she originally set up the Trust Marjorie expressed the wish that the gift should be applied as far as possible for “mentally handicapped children and adults in Warminster”. Until the money from her estate came into the Trust the Trustees followed that wish quite closely. With the greatly increased income, however, they have been able not only to follow that wish but also to benefit the wider community of Warminster, which it is within their power to do.
She was very anxious that in her lifetime there should be as little personal publicity as possible, so that the Trust could get on and do its work without making it known where the money had come from. So the Trust was known just as the Ernest Fudge Trust. After Marjorie’s death and with the prospect of a substantially larger capital base and income the Trust became with the active help of the Charity Commissioners ” The Ernest and Marjorie Fudge Trust for Warminster “.
The Trustees meet quarterly, more often if they need to, to look at the applications that they receive from individuals or organisations. They encourage applicants to spend the money locally. However, this is not mandatory.