And finally…Scottish building tycoon leaves £25m to charity

Basil_LarsenScots-based businessman Basil Larsen has left the bulk of his £33 million fortune to charity, according to his recently published will.

The former director of a construction company, who died last year aged 88, had set up a charitable trust in 1999.

The philanthropic gesture was made after leaving gifts totalling £8 million to friends.

Mr Larsen instructed that the remainder of his £33,691,282 estate — about £25 million — should be handed to good causes.



He appointed trusted friends to run the Basil Larsen Charitable Trust, which will distribute grants across the UK.

A spokesman for the trust said: “We will be registering the details of Mr Larsen’s generosity with the Charities Commission. It is too early to say how the money will be distributed.”

Mr Larsen, whose father was Danish, was born and brought up in Kew, London, before moving to Scotland as a young man.

He ran the Scottish operation of the Bison concrete company and helped to develop its revolutionary construction patents.

He settled in Scotland with his wife Ella, who died eight years ago, and they bought a home in Auchterarder, Perthshire, near Gleneagles.

A friend said: “He never had any children and felt it was important to give something back to charities.”

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