The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust
Registered Charity Number 1156976
D-Day – Keeping the veterans' story alive
Legacies: By making a gift in your will, you can ensure the D-Day
story is kept alive for future generations
Introduction
The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust is a registered charity with the aim of
ensuring that the story of D-Day can be told for future generations through the
exhibitions and activities at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth and at other D-Day
related sites in the UK.
By making a gift to the Trust in your will – a legacy – you can help it achieve its
mission in a way that you might not be able to do in your lifetime.
This leaflet gives the basic information that you need to make a gift in your will. Of
course, you should consider the interests of your close family and loved ones and
perhaps discuss your wishes with them – and we also recommend very strongly
that you talk to your solicitor or legal adviser about how you express your wishes
in your will itself.
A day that created history
6th June 1944 was perhaps the most momentous day in Western European history. Now
forever known as ‘D-Day’, it was the day on which 156,000 men landed in Normandy to
liberate Europe from the tyranny of the Nazis.
The 6th June marked both the end of a huge effort of planning, innovation, training, supply,
secrecy and deception and the beginning of a hard-fought and bloody campaign in
Normandy that was as costly in human life as the terrible battles of the First World War. DDay therefore speaks of national effort and international collaboration, of men and material
moving on a colossal scale, of huge forces clashing. But it was also the achievement of
individuals at all levels, both in the frontline and at home (in factories, in homes
requisitioned for training purposes, in hospitals etc). Of course, many who served lost their
lives.
The D-Day Museum
The D-Day Museum in Portsmouth is the only museum in Britain dedicated to the whole
story of the planning and execution of the Allied landings in Normandy in the summer of
1944.
It owes its existence to a bold and far-sighted decision taken 30 years ago by Portsmouth
City Council, ahead of the event's 40th anniversary. Portsmouth had been at the very heart
of D-Day operations, with the Allied commanders being based just outside the City and tens
of thousands of men and ships leaving from the Solent. Subsequently, Portsmouth has
been the focus of celebrations on the key anniversaries, the most recent being the 70th in
2014.
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The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust
Registered Charity Number 1156976
The Museum holds unrivalled collections, from large vehicles, including an iconic landing
craft, to evocative items, such as the Dickin Medal awarded to Gustav, the carrier pigeon
that brought the first news back (on loan to the Museum). An extensive oral history and
written archive (including the Normandy Veterans Association's video interviews collection)
holds the personal reminiscences of many veterans and civilians who took part in or
witnessed the operation.
At the heart of the displays is the remarkable Overlord Embroidery. A modern-day Bayeux
Tapestry, this 272 feet/83-metre long work of art was commissioned at the end of the 1960s
by Lord Dulverton as a memorial to those who had taken part and took a team of 25
embroiderers 5 years to make.
The need for investment
Portsmouth City Council manages the day-to-day running of the D-Day Museum.
However, the Council is simply not in a position to make the regular investment in
new exhibitions, collections care, staffing or activities that any museum needs if it
is to flourish by attracting new visitors, including school parties and children from
the UK and abroad. For the D-Day Museum, such investment is even more
important as the first-hand links with the event itself are finally being broken with
the passing of the Veterans.
At the same time, there is undoubtedly a great deal of enthusiasm for D-Day
among the public, as demonstrated by the crowds that gather for the anniversary
events and the 200,000 or so people who search the Museum’s website for
information each year.
Keeping the D-Day story alive: the D-Day Museum Trust
In order to make it possible to attract funds for the development of the Museum –
so giving the public the opportunity to play their part in ensuring the D-Day story
lives on – the Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust, an independent registered charity
(No 1156976) has been established.
The objectives of the Trust are
‘the advancement of education of the public by the promotion, assistance, and
improvement of the Portsmouth D-Day Museum and its related activities and of
historic sites and other areas of cultural interest relating to D-Day’
These objectives were made as broad as they are to accommodate the aspiration
of the Museum to become a national ‘hub’ for D-Day learning and to work closely
with related museums and heritage groups.
All donations to the Trust will be used to ensure the heritage of D-Day is preserved
and the story of those who took part and what they achieved are kept alive.
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The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust
Registered Charity Number 1156976
How You Can help: Making a gift in your will
Many people who might wish to support the Trust are, for various perfectly
understandable reasons - increased life expectancy, reduced pension provision or
the need to provide for the growing cost of care in later life – not in a position to
make a donation from their disposable income.
If this is the case, please consider making a gift in your will – a legacy. After
making provision for your dependents and loved ones, this can be a very effective
way of supporting the causes you believe in, with the potential to give far more
than you could in your lifetime.
Reducing Your Inheritance Tax Liability
Unless you are leaving your estate to your spouse or civil partner, it will be liable
to inheritance tax if it is worth more than £325,000. Any legacies you make are
exempt from inheritance tax and therefore will reduce the value of your estate for
inheritance tax purposes. Inheritance tax is currently at 40%. Moreover, if you
leave 10% of more of your estate to charity, the rate of inheritance tax on your
estate (if eligible) will fall to 36% (at current rates).
How to do it
There are a number of different options for making a gift in your will. The main
ones are:
A Pecuniary Bequest
A pecuniary bequest is the gift of a specific sum of money.
OR
A Residuary Bequest
This is a gift of part or all of the residue of your estate after other bequests have
been made and any debts and expenses have been paid.
There are a number of other forms, including
A Reversionary Bequest
Under this method, your family and loved ones can benefit from your assets while
they are alive and then, on their passing, the assets revert to the Trust.
A Substitutional Legacy/Longstop Provision
This means that you can leave a specific sum, object or share of your estate to a
particular person or persons, but if they pre-decease you, the bequest would pass
to the Trust.
A Deed of Variation
If you become a beneficiary of someone else’s will, you can transfer the whole, or
part, of that inheritance to the Trust using a Deed of Variation, which exempts it
from the Inheritance Tax which might otherwise have been payable.
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The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust
Registered Charity Number 1156976
Varying an existing will
You can make simple changes to an existing will by writing a codicil. However, if
you wish to make substantial changes, it might be best to draft a new will.
Independent Advice
We hope you will find this information helpful. However, because everybody’s
estate is different, we strongly recommend that you seek independent legal advice
before drawing up or making any changes to your will.
If you would like to speak to us about this, please contact
Dr Jane Mee
Museums & Visitor Services Manager
Portsmouth Museum
Museum Road
Portsmouth
PO1 2LJ
Tel: 023 9283 4788
Email: jane.mee@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Specimen wording
The following examples of specimen are included for information. Legal advice
should always be taken in drawing up or amending a will.
Pecuniary Bequest (a specific sum of money)
The wording to go in your Will for a pecuniary bequest, or in a codicil to your Will,
could be:
I leave to The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust (Registered Charity Number
1156976), c/o Portsmouth Museum, Museum Road, Portsmouth PO1 2LJ the sum
of £ ………(amount in words) for its general purposes and I direct that the receipt
of the Treasurer or other duly authorised officer shall be a sufficient discharge to
my executors.
Residuary Bequest (a proportion of your estate)
The wording to go in your Will for a residuary bequest, or in a codicil to your Will,
could be:
I leave to The Portsmouth D-Day Museum Trust (Registered Charity Number
1156976), c/o Portsmouth Museum, Museum Road, Portsmouth PO1 2LJ …. (the
proportion) of the residue of my estate for its general purposes and I direct that the
receipt of the Treasurer or other duly authorised officer shall be a sufficient
discharge to my executors.
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