History of the Nuffield Trust

The name - Nuffield – and the emblem – a bull riding a bicycle – both derive from the late Lord Nuffield.  He was born plain William Morris in Oxford, England, and left school at the age of twelve.  He repaired bicycles for his living but soon showed such engineering skill that he was constructing his own new models, followed by motor bikes and finally the Morris motor car, thus founding one of the great industries of the early 20^th century.  The bull in his company’s emblem was taken from the coat of arms of the city of Birmingham and the bicycle indicates his route to fame.

Both financial reward and social recognition came to William Morris.  He was ennobled as Lord Nuffield and his fortune was so great that he was able to give away more than £30,000,000 during his lifetime – when the value of money was far, far greater than it is today - to various charitable bodies. 

In 1943 he endowed the newly-created Nuffield Foundation with 4,000,000 Morris Motor shares, worth at that time £10,000,000.  The Foundation operated solely within the UK and its initial objectives were “the advancement of health and social well-being and the care and comfort of the aged poor”. 

Development of the Farming Scholarships

By 1947, due to suggestions by Jack Maclean, Vice President of the British NFU, these objectives had been widened to include agricultural advancement.  The Trustees of the Nuffield Foundation chose their first Nuffield Farming Scholars, charging them – at a time when communications in the farming world were neither very good nor very swift – to search out and bring back to farmers in the UK details of good and innovative agricultural husbandry from different parts of the globe.  Three Scholars were chosen that first year, who studied in New Zealand, Canada and the USA respectively.  With typical prescience one of the Scholars selected was a woman and it took her 8 weeks of comparative hardship merely to travel to the Antipodes – a measure of the limitations of those days.

By 1956 the number of Scholars had increased to 8 per annum and Maclean was told that the farming industry should now fund the Scheme itself since the concept was clearly successful.  A fund was set up under the control of the Foundation and Scholars were selected as before.  In 1968 the Foundation said it could no longer administer the Scholarships and several farmer enthusiasts decided to devise a new organisation to carry on the work.

A new Trust was formed, “The United Kingdom Farming Scholarships Trust” with 4 Trustees and Jack Maclean as Chairman.  It was run from a small office in Agriculture House with John Stewart as Secretary.  A grant was still received from the Foundation but this was insufficient.  Money was raised for Special Awards and remits were expanded to include horticultural growers.  “Nuffield” had been omitted from the new Trust’s name because it was felt that to potential donors the connotation was one of limitless pots of money.  However the Trust changed its name to “The Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust” in 1978 in honour of its illustrious benefactor.  

International Involvement

That was the story in the UK.  Meanwhile, back in 1950, the Nuffield Foundation had started a parallel scheme covering farmers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Kenya, the Rhodesias and Tanganyika.  These Scholars came to Britain for a study period of 6 months.  In 1976 the Foundation required the Commonwealth countries still in the scheme (these by now were only Australia, New Zealand and Canada) to fund their own awards. 

Australia took the initiative in calling a conference in London to tackle the problem of the management of Overseas Scholars in Britain.  The Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust in Britain agreed to take on the task and has done so ever since.  All Overseas Scholars were required to spend at least 6 weeks in the UK and Europe where they would take part in a comprehensive programme arranged by the Trust.  Scholars first visited the EU in Brussels in 1980 as a part of their briefing and this programme has been expanded steadily over the years. During the period 1976-80 management of the programme was devolved to national organisers, with a triennial management conference rotating around the participating countries.  Zimbabwe rejoined and France joined the scheme in 1982 and the Republic of Ireland likewise in 1996. 

Irish Involvement to date

Irish involvement began with an initiative by the Irish Farmers Journal. FBD and the IFA generously responded to a request to join with the Journal in providing funding for two annual scholars. The first two Irish scholars were selected in 1996 and each year thereafter until 2000. In 2001 the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society became a new sponsor and the number of scholarships was increased to three per annum. One of the first Irish scholars, Jim McCarthy, became Chairman of the Irish Scholars group in 2001 and Padraig Walshe took over this role from 2004 to 2006.  In September 2006 the Nuffield association in Ireland was established as the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust Limited, a company with no share capital, limited by guarantee. Thomas Horgan was elected chairperson from 2006 to 2008. From 2007 a further sponsor, the One 51 Trust, has funded an additional scholarship and is also assisting with the costs surrounding the support and further development of the scheme.