Background to the trust

The Cole Charitable Trust was set up in 1972 with the objective:

“for such legally charitable purposes or purpose in such amounts proportions and manner and at such times as the Trustees shall from time to time think fit”

Peggy Cole

The settlor Peggy Cole was the daughter of Eb Bryant and sister of Chris Bryant, who ran the family building business C Bryant & Son in Birmingham. Peggy Cole gifted shares in Bryant Holdings to the Trust.

The Settlor has now died but the current Trustees include some of Peggy Cole’s children and grandchildren.  The family shareholding in Bryant Holdings became valuable when the Company, under the leadership of Chris Bryant, was floated on the stock market in 1962, and this was the stimulus to create the Charitable Trust.

Peggy Cole was brought up in a well to do family.  She became a doctor and worked in family planning and as a General Practitioner. Because of the kind of person she was, and through her life experience, she was aware of the privilege she enjoyed but was equally aware that there were many less privileged.

John and Peggy Cole

Her husband, John, was a consultant radiologist in a Birmingham hospital.  Together, they set up the trust to support charities that work to benefit the community in Birmingham. Subsequently the remit of the Trust has widened to cover other areas where the Trustees live.