Legacy Stories

Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), Young man among roses, 1585-95. Museum no. P.163-1910. George Salting bequest

Read how some of our donors have made a big difference by leaving a legacy to the V&A.

Geoffrey Akerman
Geoffrey Akerman’s legacy provided essential funding to help the V&A acquire an exquisite jade Ottoman Tankard made for a sixteenth century Sultan.

Mavis Alexander
Mavis Alexander’s legacy helped the V&A purchase the iconic Rolling Stones’s ‘Tongue’ logo and also assisted with the purchase of a stunning photograph by Philip-Lorca diCorcia entitled ‘Ike Cole, 38 Years Old, Los Angeles, California, $25’.

Muriel Askew
Muriel Askew’s legacy provided funding to assist with the creation of the Glass Galleries.

Sylvia Lennie England
Sylvia Lennie England was a student specialising in research on French 16th and 17th century history. A gift in her Will enabled the V&A to run a series of lectures on the Renaissance including ‘Making Glass and Imagining the World in Early Modern Venice’.

Eileen Hose MBE
Eileen Hose MBE bequeathed Sir Cecil Beaton’s archive of royal portrait photographs to the V&A along with the copyright of all the images which provides income each time the photographs are used. This income is paid into the Cecil Beaton Fund which helps towards new photography acquisitions.

Pauline Johnstone
Pauline Johnstone was an expert on East Mediterranean embroideries and a former member of staff at the V&A. Her generous bequest is helping to create the new Clothworkers' Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation at Blythe House. Read Pauline Johnstone's obituary.

Winifred May Kimberley
Miss Kimberley left a legacy which included the royalties from the works of her friend, the author Phyllis Mary Hartnoll. This helped to fund an archivist who carried out essential cataloguing work for the Theatre & Performance department.

Catherine Ward
Catherine Ward was a generous donor to the V&A during her lifetime and her subsequent bequest helped meet the publishing costs of a major catalogue on Medieval Ivory Carvings: Early Christian to Romanesque.