Oil shares provided fortune for charity

Jan 17 2008 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MILLIONAIRESS who left £1.2m to charity in her will made her fortune from shares in oil.

Mildred Irene Stringer bequeathed her fortune to eight local and national charities.

Her nephew Robert Baggaley said he was glad she finally spent the money how she wanted to.

Mr Baggaley, who lives with his wife Audrey in Almondbury, said: “I’m glad she has done exactly what she wanted with her money.

“I always said she’d leave everything to the cats home.

“I didn’t know how much she was worth, I thought maybe half a million, but I always knew I wouldn’t get anything.

“She was a good aunt and her heart was in the right place.”

The couple would visit Mrs Stringer, who they called Rene, every fortnight at The Flowers Hall home where she lived.

They were her closest relatives as the 95-year-old never had children with her late husband Joseph.

She died on September 11, 2007 having suffered with dementia during her last years. She also battled breast cancer.

Shares from Mrs Stringer’s estate went to the National Kidney Research Fund, Barnardo’s and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

She also left £10,000 each to Kirkwood Hospice and to Save the Children, £5,000 to the British Diabetic Association, £1,000 to the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus and £500 to the RSPCA.

Mrs Stringer had a difficult childhood after her parents split up.

Her mother took her and sister Audrey May away forcing her father, James Swallow, to obtain a court order for their discovery and later Mildred’s custody.

He returned to Huddersfield with Mildred but they never saw Audrey again.

Mr Swallow remarried and had two daughters, Joan and Veronica, who is Mr Baggaley’s mother.

Mr Baggaley, 61, a retired engineer, added: “She could be a bit cantankerous, but it must be a family trait as her sisters were the same, even I am the same.

“Rene used to come and visit us every Christmas and we would go and visit her at the home.

“We had nothing to gain, but she was family.

“I wish she had enjoyed her money more while she was alive.

“She never had a holiday, not until Joseph had died.”

Mrs Stringer worked as a bookkeeper at stationer and office supplier Wheatley Dyson.

Her husband, who died in 1984, was a plasterer, but made his money in stocks and shares with oil companies including Shell.

He also owned property in Marsh and was a big gambler, making money through that.

Mr Baggaley said: “Joseph was a big gambler, but he never used to spend any money, that’s how she’s got it all.”