Bedford School Trust has received a generous £2m legacy from the estate of a former pupil.
Gordon Lindsay-White, 95, died last July, leaving the school with its largest sum ever received.
He attended the boys school from 1922-1932 and was based in Bromham House.
The Trust, which manages funds and property donated to Bedford School, will now have to decide how to use the money. It is separate to the Bedford Charity (Harpur Trust) which runs the school. In 2008-09, the Trust received a total of £58,201 in donations, an amount that has been incredibly surpassed by the latest legacy.
John Moule, head teacher of the school, said: “We are enormously grateful to Mr Lindsay-White for this extremely generous legacy - this is the biggest gift that the school has ever received.
“It is anticipated that the legacy funds will be used for a variety of purposes and it certainly gives an ideal opportunity to help fund additional scholarships and bursaries to provide opportunities for talented students who would ordinarily be unable to access a Bedford School education.
“Bedford School Trust will also be able to continue to support, as it has in the past, community projects such as our Observatory, the Art Lecture programme and our Composer in Residence scheme. In this way, the wider community will also benefit from Mr Lindsay- White’s generosity.”
Mr Lindsay-White was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1914.
He was an accountant although the family business was in rubber production in Ceylon.