THE INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH
MEMORANDUM
To:
Sir Kenneth Stowe
From:
J M Kipling
Date:
23.7.92
1143 285/1
SOT
THE ESTATE OF THE LATE SIR S K TANG
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Hong Kong Department, is involved in this case.
Sir S K Tang who died in 1986, is understood to have been an extremely rich businessman in Hong Kong who in his Will made a very generous discretionary charitable bequest for medical purposes. To date, The Legacy Officer of the Institute has been unable to obtain a copy of the Will and thus is uncertain as to whom the discretionary power was given. However, he was informed by the FCO in January 1989 that one third of the Testator's residuary estate was to be directed to the Institute; at that time the sum involved was stated to be in the region of £330,000, together with an amount of accrued interest.
From the information received from the FCO to date, there appears to be a problem in distributing the funds which arises in regard to two aspects, firstly, in considering legal ways of ensuring that the bequest qualifies as a trust in the UK and secondly - and consequently - that it will not suffer tax when transferred here from Hong Kong. It has been suggested to the FCO that Messrs Farrer & Co, the Institute's solicitors, might be able to assist in unravelling these difficulties but there has been no response to this suggestion.
It is now some six years since the Testator died and over three years since the Institute was first informed of this matter which, despite the lapse of time, seems no nearer to a solution.
There has been correspondence between the Institute's Legacy Officer with the FCO but it is far from informative and is thus inconclusive.
The funds from the late Sir Tang's estate could be immensely valuable to the Institute in its present plans for the development of its laboratories. It would thus be extremely helpful to know how soon they might become available.