Woman leaves £3m fortune to charity

A SCOTS woman who left £15,000 to her friends and family has stunned them all after she had put aside a separate £3 million windfall for charity.

Emily Irving died earlier this year aged 90 but it has now emerged that she had gifted the majority of her £2,962,440 fortune to good causes.

Miss Ir ving’s estate included more than £257,000 held in bank accounts and a stocks and shares portfolio worth about £1.3m.

Her home in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh – inherited from her parents – was valued at £1.2 million and her personal possessions were valued a t £37,000.

She left around £300,000 each to 10 charities, including Life Care Edinburgh, Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, The Royal United Kingdom Benefit Association and The Thistle Foundation.

A former neighbour of Ms Irving said: “It doesn’t surprise me that she left her money to charities, but I am stunned at the amount. She didn’t have a car and never showed any great wealth.”

Ms Irving was born in Ge o r g e t o wn, B r i t i s h Guyana, but moved with her parents to Edinburgh when she was around three years old. She lived in the city for the rest of her life but never worked, instead volunteering with several charities and caring for her mother and aunt.

Gordon Cameron, Ms Irving’s lawyer, said: “She was an extraordinary woman. All the charities she left money to were close to her heart.”