Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust

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London grant-making trust (charity 261378) of Melvin Lawson, giving mainly to Jewish welfare, education and religious charities

Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust

Type Charitable trust
Founded registered 31 July 1970
Registration ID Charity 261378
Headquarters c/o A.B Group Ltd, 2nd Floor, 25 Old Burlington Street, London W1S 3AN
Key people Melvin Lawson, Lynton Stock (trustees)

The Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust is a UK-based grant-giving charity (charity no. 261378), registered on 31 July 1970.[1]

Trustees

Name Role Date Appointed
Francis Katz Trustee 11 January 2006
Lynton Stock Trustee 11 January 2006
Melvin Lawson Trustee 15 February 1993

The trustees named in the 2014–15 accounts are Melvin Anthony Lawson, Francis Colin Katz and Lynton Robert Stock.[2] The register (October 2026) lists two trustees, Lynton Robert Stock and Melvin Anthony Lawson; Francis Katz is no longer listed.[3]

Grant Recipients

Grant recipients of the Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust in £ sterling[4]
Organisation 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Adam Science Foundation 2,500
Barbican Centre Trust 1,200
British Refugee Council 1,500
Central Synagogue 5,000 4,100 11,700 5,000 11,750
Centrepoint 4,000
Chai-Lifeline Cancer Care 5,000
Chicken Shed Theatre Trust 2,000
City of Westminster Charitable Trust 3,000
Community Security Trust 5,000 5,000 5,000 2,500
Devonshire Street Charitable Foundation 10,000
Du Boisson Dance Foundation 5,000
Hatzola Northwest Trust 1,000
Holocaust Educational Trust 2,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 3,000
J Roots 1,250
Jerusalem Foundation 1,000
Jewish Association for Mental Illness (JAMI) 500 500
Jewish Care 12,500 16,000 12,500 12,500 12,500
Jewish Leadership Council 4,000 10,000 10,000 10,000
Jewish Learning Exchange 7,500 5,000
Jewish Volunteering Network 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Jewish Women's Aid 2,500
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation 1,500
London School of Jewish Studies 2,000
Mental Health Foundation 3,000
Nightingale House / Nightingale Hammerson 5,000 27,500 3,100 45,000
Norwood Ravenswood 11,250 12,500 6,250 12,500 12,500
Onside Youth Zones 5,000
ORT UK Foundation 1,500
Paperweight Trust 1,000
Prince's Teaching Institute 2,000
Project Seed 5,000 5,000 5,000
Simon Marks Jewish Primary School Trust 2,000
St Marks Hospital Foundation 2,500
Stand With Us 500
Target Ovarian Cancer 1,000
Technion UK 1,000 1,000
Teenage Cancer Trust 1,500
Unitas 2,500
United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) 3,000 3,000
United Synagogue 9,050 5,000 25,000 15,000 1,700
University of Haifa UK 2,500
Work Avenue Foundation 1,500
World Jewish Relief 1,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Youth Aliya - Child Rescue 2,500 5,000

Filed accounts 2013–14 and 2014–15

The accounts for the years ended 2014-03-31 and 2015-03-31 were read from copies of the Charity Commission files held by the UK Government Web Archive.[5][2]

Israel-related grants, years to 31 March (£)
Recipient 2014 2015
United Jewish Israel Appeal 3,000 3,000
Jerusalem Foundation 1,000 8,200
WIZO 2,500
UK Friends of AWIS 2,000
British Friends of Haifa University 2,000
Friends of Yad Sarah 2,000
Youth Aliyah Child Rescue 500
Friends of Alyn 500

Sources: the grants-payable note in each year's accounts.[5][2]

Grants 2020–21 to 2024–25

The accounts for 2020–21 to 2022–23 list each grant: 17 grants of £121,950, 20 of £92,500 and 17 of £115,700. None is to an Israeli institution, a body supporting the Israeli military or a recipient beyond the Green Line; the largest recipients were Jewish welfare charities such as Norwood, Jewish Care, Nightingale House and World Jewish Relief.[6][7][8] From 2023–24 the accounts give only category totals, citing section 132(4) of the Charities Act 2011: 24 grants of £114,500 in 2023–24 and 19 of £133,500 in 2024–25 (health and social welfare £69,500, religious activities £35,500, education £28,500) (PDF p.4, 10).[9]

Finances

Income and expenditure (register), years to 31 March
Year ending Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £691,580 £130,129
2022-03-31 £137,055 £101,416
2023-03-31 £125,666 £125,965
2024-03-31 £242,047 £124,442
2025-03-31 £239,484 £146,186

Source: register annual-return history; latest accounts (year to 31 March 2025) received 29 January 2026.[3] Income was £91,259 in 2013–14 and £109,395 in 2014–15.[5][2]

Support for the Israeli military

Grants. The trust gave £2,000 in 2014–15 to UK Friends of AWIS, whose registered objects are the relief of need and suffering of serving and discharged Israeli soldiers and their families.[2][10] No grant to a body supporting the Israeli military appears in the grants table above (2016–2021) or in the itemised lists for 2020–21 to 2022–23; later accounts give categories only.[8][9] Grade: High for the recipient's purpose.

Prior scrutiny. In February 2024 David Miller, writing for PressTV, named the trust among about twenty charities that had donated to UK Friends of AWIS, and it is listed on the Powerbase page UK AWIS - supporters.[11] No Charity Commission inquiry or warning concerning the trust was found.

Activity beyond the Green Line

Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
£8,200 in 2014–15 and £1,000 in 2013–14 to the Jerusalem Foundation, whose UK accounts list projects in occupied East Jerusalem (graded on its page), and £2,500 in 2014–15 to WIZO UK, whose Israeli parent runs day-care centres in settlements in the occupied West Bank (graded on its page).[5][2] Low – via UK intermediaries

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No regulatory action concerning the trust was found in the register extract or the sources searched. The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this trust is among them.[12]

Contact Info

  • Register address (October 2026), unchanged:
A.B GROUP LTD, 2ND FLOOR, 25 OLD BURLINGTON STREET, LONDON W1S 3AN
  • Phone: 02077348111
  • Email: bt@abplc.co.uk

Notes

  1. ↑ Governance, Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Charity Commission. Retireved 30 November 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (bulk download, tables charity, charity_trustee and charity_annual_return_history dated 14 October 2026), rows for charity 261378.
  4. ↑ Accounts and Annual Returns, Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Charity Commission. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  6. ↑ Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Trustees' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021, note 6 Grants awarded, from accounts and annual returns Register of Charities.
  7. ↑ Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Trustees' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022, note 6 Grants awarded, from accounts and annual returns Register of Charities.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Trustees' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023, note 6 Grants awarded, from accounts and annual returns Register of Charities.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lawson Beckman Charitable Trust, Trustees' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025, from accounts and annual returns Register of Charities ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  10. ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract, governing-document row for charity 1084272 (UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers, working name "UK FRIENDS OF AWIS"), table dated 14 October 2026; its objects are "THE RELIEF OF NEED AND SUFFERING OF SERVING AND DISCHARGED ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES".
  11. ↑ David Miller, How British ‘charities’ are aiding Israeli genocide in Gaza PressTV, 1 February 2024.
  12. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
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