Memorial Trust

Creation of 625 Squadron Memorial Trust

The Webmaster of 625 Squadron Website raised the idea of establishing a legal entity that would hold title to the land where the 625 Squadron Memorial is located and which would manage, curate and maintain the memorial.  The idea was publicized on the 625 Squadron Website, the 625 Squadron X (Twitter) feed and on the two Facebook sites (625 Squadron Association and Friends of 625 Squadron).  

Background to Work Undertaken to Date

Subsequent to the concept being raised, the following actions were taken to further explore the idea and what would be entailed:

• Preliminary research was conducted about what would be required to establish a Trust and how the Trust would function. The information gather during the research was made available on the 625 Squadron Website and via links posted on the Facebook sites.

• A survey was conducted to gather feedback about the idea and to garner the level of support for the creation and ongoing function of the Trust.  Based on the survey results, there was support for the creation of a Trust.

• A solicitor (Gerry Morrison, Partner, Wilkin Chapman Rollits) who practices in Lincolnshire and who specializes in not-for-profit and charity law was identified and contacted.

• Two virtual meetings were conducted with interested individuals and with the solicitor to understand the issues associated with creating a Trust.

• The solicitor provided a briefing document which outlined the various options, analysis of pros and cons and the process that would be required to create the Trust.  The briefing document was made available to interested parties via a link to the 625 Squadron Website.

• The solicitor was a requested to provide an estimate of the legal fees and disbursements that would be required to establish the Trust.  The estimate was received on May 22, 2025.  The fee estimate is provided below.

Next Steps

• Contact the landowner on which the 625 Squadron Memorial is located to determine if he would be willing to donate the piece of land to the Trust.

• Raise sufficient funds to cover the legal fees and disbursements for the creation of the Trust.  The funds raised will be gathered through a GoFundMe account that has been established and that will be maintained and accounted for by the 625 Squadron Webmaster.  If there are any surplus funds after paying the legal fees and disbursements, the 625 Squadron Webmaster will arrange to have these funds transferred to the Trust's bank account.  A full accounting of the funds raised and the disbursements will be provided on the website.  The fee and disbursement estimate (including applicable VAT) is in the range of £5,760 to £6,420.  

• For consideration:

  • • If 100 individuals provide a contribution of £65 each, this will cover the costs to the upper end of the range,  

    • If 75 individuals provide a contribution of £85 each, this will cover the costs to the upper end of the range, 

    • If 50 individuals provide a contribution of £128, this will cover the costs to the upper end of the range.

• Supporters and interested parties can use their own networks, contacts and social media platforms to create awareness and support for the initiative by referring them to this page on the 625 Squadron Website.

• If sufficient funds are raised, five (5) individuals will need act as the initial Trustees for the Trust.  These individuals will be required to provide specific information to the solicitor as input into the submissions required to establish the Trust.  The 625 Squadron Website Webmaster has created a tool to gather the required information from individuals that are willing to act as one of the initial Trustees.  In order to put yourself forward as an Initial Trustee for the Trust, please click here.

• The 625 Squadron Website Webmaster, working with the other initial Trustees will assist with the preparation of various inputs and narratives requested by the solicitor to help keep the legal fees to a minimum.

• Once the Trust has been established, the 625 Squadron Website Webmaster, in his capacity as an initial Trustee, would be willing to setup and maintain a cloud based accounting system and would work with the other initial Trustees to open a bank account with a UK financial institution.

• Once the Trust is operational, the Trustees will conduct regular virtual meetings to operate the Trust to achieve its goals and aspirations.

Legal Fee and Disbursements Estimate Provided By Solicitor (provided verbatim from email received from the Solicitor on May 22, 2025)

• For convenience of the reader, the 625 Squadron Website Webmaster has provided a summary of the fee and disbursements estimate. The summary should be read in conjunction with the email received from the solicitor as provided below.

• Fee and Disbursements Estimate (including Trustee Training, but without preparation of governance documents, which could be prepared internally) and including applicable VAT:

  • • £5,760 to £6,420

Email Received From Solicitor

Dear Philip

Further to your email I have provided a scope of work and breakdown of costs to set up the new Charity. 

Please advise if you have any questions.  I am on leave until 2 June and will pick up any queries on my return.

Thank you for giving the firm the opportunity to submit this. 

Structure Advice

We can provide you with a detailed structure advice if you wish, however, the most simplistic and suitable legal structure would be a charitable incorporated organisation (“CIO”). 

Registering a Charity

To apply to the Charity Commission to register a new CIO, this would include preparing and submitting a detailed application to the Charity Commission.  Very simple applications can be fast tracked; however, many applications will be put into the “complex” queue.  We would hope this application would be fast tracked but unfortunately, once the application is submitted to the Charity Commission then we have no control over the timescale, but we will chase up the application regularly in the hope that this will move the process onwards.   

The time it would take us to prepare and submit an application would depend upon how quickly you can get the relevant information to us including personal details of the Charity’s first trustees.  As a guide, it would usually take us 2-3 weeks to complete the application after being instructed.  It can take the Charity Commission up to 3 months to assess an initial application. 

We would need details of the Charity’s first trustees including full names, addresses and dates of birth.  The Charity Commission requires at least 3 trustees to start with and a typical board would range between 5 and 12 Trustees with the right mix of skills and experience to drive the Charity’s mission.   

To complete an application to the Charity Commission our fees would be in the region of £1,950 to £2,500 plus VAT depending on the amount of drafting we would need to do.  We would usually expect there to be more than one draft based on our review of initial recommendations and issues that come to light as part of the drafting process.   

The registration process is vigorous, and a successful application must contain sufficient detail about the Charity’s aims and activities.  Many applications fail for lack of sufficient detail about what the Charity is being set up to do, and how it proposes to achieve it.   

I would recommend that you consider this now and the arrangements for the Charity to use and access the site on which the Memorial and former squadron base is.  Any agreement you can reach with the landowner in advance would need to be provided to the Charity Commission otherwise they may refuse to register the Charity if they cannot see a legal basis for the Charity to access and use the site. 

We would also recommend a further budget of £950 plus VAT for liaising with the Charity Commission on the registration application depending on the number of questions raised in the application.  This might not be necessary as we cannot anticipate how the Charity Commission will respond to the application, but we prefer to prepare clients in any event. 

We would only charge for the work carried out and no more so if the work in progress came below the amount estimated, we would only charge for the work completed.

Constitution

There are two types of Constitutions available to a CIO. These are a foundation model and an association model.  We would anticipate that, unless you require separate voting memberships, a foundation model CIO would be suitable because the Trustees are the same people as the voting members, and this keeps the structure tight. 

To prepare the Constitution, our fees would be in the region of £950 plus VAT.  This would include drafting suitable Objects (i.e. purposes), which would legally restrict the Charity to operate within defined purposes that are charitable at law.  We would need clear instructions from you as to the Charity’s aims and the outcomes it is being set up to achieve to draft suitable provisions. 

Governance Documents

We can also prepare a suite of governance documents if you require.  Examples of documents that we can prepare include the following:

·                 Conflicts of Interest Policy

·                 Register of Trustees’ Interests

·                 Risk Register

We have not included the estimate for this work now, but if you are interested, please let us know. 

You may wish to consider these as the application progresses.  Sometimes the Charity Commission can ask to see examples of documents, but these can be drafted relatively quickly if you would require them.

Trustee Training

We discussed the role and legal duties placed on trustees and referred you to the Charity Commission guidance, “The Essential Trustee” which sets out the duties in detail. You may wish to gain a more in depth understanding of the duties of a Charity Trustee in a more practical context. The Charity Commission recommends that Trustees undertake Trustee Training particularly where they are new to the role and Trustee training is maintained throughout their service. 

We offer Trustee Training in relation to the duties on Trustees and other topics such as the management of conflicts of interest and how to hold an effective meeting which we can tailor to the context of the new charity.

An example of a session would be one hour session where all trustees attend in addition to anyone else who is involved in the charity (e.g. administrator) and this would be £950 plus VAT. 

If you have any questions in relation to this proposal, please let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you. 

Best wishes

Gerry