Recently the Society has been pleased to receive a bequest from the estate of Gratton and Junelee Wheaton. It’s a tied bequest and is to put towards our project to install bespoke bookcases in the RGSSA library. Gratton and Junelee had significant involvement with the Society and this will be recognised with an appropriate plaque on one of the bookcases.
A member from 1986 Grattan Wheaton, with his late wife Junelee, were stalwart supporters of the Society.
Grattan served as Society vice President 1993-2003 and for several years in the 1990s was Chairman of our Library Committee. With Junelee’s patient support Grattan was able to become actively involved with the Society. June/July 2022 Page 11 Grattan was passionate about the Society’s Library collection. Using the collections as his primary source Grattan wrote some scholarly articles for our membership newsletter on Frederick Burnaby 1842-85, Thomas Worsnop, Tristan Da Cunha, Sir Thomas Raffles 1781-1826 and Robert Drury.
Grattan and Junelee hosted many Society members at their Macclesfield property. Representing the Society in an official capacity, they attended events and were also regular contributors to Society Trust Funds for its Library and Scholarship activities.
Brigadier Ellis Wayland AM, RFD, ED was a close friend of the Wheatons and is one of the Executors of their will. He was pleased to hand over a cheque to our Treasurer Tony Merchant for $50,000 for this project and has indicated that there may be a further bequest as the estate is finalised. As mentioned in the last edition of GeoNews, the bookcase project will help us realise the vision for the space developed by Troppo Architects several years ago. These new bookcases will enable us to reorganise and physically open up our library. It will make the space more welcoming and allow us to better showcase our treasures. It’s another significant, transformative and exciting change for RGSSA.
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