Philanthropist
After providing for his daughter, Dick left over £113,000 in his will with instructions for the setting up a of a bequest fund to help the schoolmasters and schools in Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Morayshire.
it being my wish to form a fund for the benefit of that neglected though useful class of men, and to add to their present trifling salaries
Most of the masters were arts graduates who taught only while they waited for a career in the church. Dick's vision was that the most learned of these would be encouraged to stay in education for the benefit of both themselves and the children they taught. By 1833 the endowment yielded between £3300 and £5500 annually and had grown to around £200,000. The fund was administered by trustees belonging to the Society of Writers to the Signet. Applicants were rigorously examined for suitability and were required to be proficient in teaching classical languages, humanities, mathematics and science; those who were successful doubled their salaries. The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 changed the way in which the grants were dispensed by ensuring that endowments were transferred to school boards. The Royal Commissioners in their third report on endowed schools stated
any fund has done so much good … no fund that has produced a shilling's worth for a shilling so fully as the Dick Bequest
From 1856 to 1907, Simon Somerville Laurie was Secretary to the Dick Bequest.
In Forres in 1928, a group of beneficiaries from the fund marked the anniversary of Dick's death by the erection of a memorial.
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