The JBS Dudding Trust

The JBS Dudding Trust was established to benefit charitable objects within New Zealand.

Although any charitable organisation in New Zealand is eligible to apply, the trustee will give special consideration (as stated in the trust deed) to charitable, educational and community organisations in Marton, and the surrounding districts of Rangitikei, Ruapehu, Wanganui, the Manawatu and Palmerston North City.

How to apply

To obtain an application form, get in touch online, or call us on 0800 371 471.

Applications are invited annually from February and close on 30 April. Grants are made by Public Trust in consultation with a Marton based advisory board.

History

The JBS Dudding Trust was established in 1963 by local farmer and investor John Beresford Swan Dudding and has been managed by Public Trust since its inception.

John Dudding spent his early years in Marton. At the outset of World War I he enlisted with the army and went on to serve in the Gallipoli campaign. On his return to New Zealand, wounded and facing rehabilitation, he began farming on one of the small units of the Greystoke Farm Settlement in Tutaenui, near Marton. For 50 years Mr Dudding tenaciously, and with considerable success, maintained and improved that property.

John Dudding married Lorna Marshall, a granddaughter of Major John Marshall of Totu Totara. They had no children of their own. It was said that much of John's success and subsequent legacy to the community, was helped by the self-sacrificing support of his wife.

In the last 20 years of Mr Dudding's life, while continuing to farm Greystoke, he started investing in the New Zealand stock market. During this time Mr Dudding became one of the largest shareholders in some major companies that were then listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

John Dudding died in 1969 aged 74, six years after establishing the JBS Dudding Trust. Having farmed most of his life, Mr Dudding was aware of the financial challenges caused by fluctuating farm prices and, as a result, knew the hardships that can be experienced by people living in rural areas, as well as the impacts felt in the wider community. He believed that in establishing a charitable trust, the award of grants to deserving organisations would help cushion Rangitikei people from the vagaries of the economy in rural New Zealand.