About the Funder

(Please note: Lord Nuffield's donations described here to Oxford’s medical research environment are entirely separate from the Nuffield Trust private hospital group and the Nuffield Foundation.)  

William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield (1877 – 1963), was an English car manufacturer and the founder of Morris Motors Limited. He began his working life in 1893 as a repairer of bicycles in the shed at the bottom of his father’s garden, with a starting capital of four pounds. In 1912 he established a car factory in Oxford, and Morris Motors became an extremely successful brand in the UK and internationally.  

Lord Nuffield's biographies quote a total value of his philanthropic donations in their various forms of £30 million¹, perhaps worth £1.5 billion (approximately $2 billion) in modern terms, though the value may have been higher. The donations took the form of shares in Morris Motors and also in direct funding to support what Lord Nuffield felt could benefit the most people. This places Lord Nuffield as one of Britain’s greatest industrialist-philanthropists, and as one of Europe’s most generous individuals.  

Lord Nuffield made a series of transformative gifts to medicine in Oxford. This included a donation in 1930 to rebuild the Wingfield Hospital (which was renamed the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in 1950), and a provision for the first British Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1937. Lord Nuffield’s bequests to Oxford's hospitals and University in the 1930s led to the expansion of the Radcliffe Infirmary and Observatory site. Nuffield College was founded in 1937, and he funded the Nuffield Medical Research Institute which became the postgraduate clinical school in 1939.  

In 1936 Lord Nuffield signed a Deed of Covenant and Trust to expand the scope of the Medical School at the University of Oxford. The charitable purpose set out in the Deed was to enable the University to broaden its medical school, including the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, and to provide specialist facilities for researchers, including postgraduate students training in modern methods of scientific investigation.  

Lord Nuffield made clear his priorities for spending the money gifted to the University in the Deed. He wished to establish clinical departments in Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Anaesthetics, while giving the University “full power to determine from time to time in its discretion the best methods of carrying out the Trust’s purposes”. 

Beyond advancing medical knowledge, Lord Nuffield's gifts were designed to support clinical investigation and patient care by improving hospital provision in and around Oxford, with the University working in partnership with local hospitals. In 1937 through a donation of £300,000 Lord Nuffield created a Trust that is related to but independent of the Nuffield Medical Benefaction, which is now known as the Nuffield Oxford Hospitals Fund. As stated in the Trust Deed, the purpose of this was to ensure that the relevant local hospital services should be raised to the highest possible standard in order to support the development of the Oxford University Medical School, without drawing upon the more limited funds available for the general running of the hospitals.  

In 1938, a further Trust Deed established the Nuffield Dominions Trust to support ‘Demonstratorships and Clinical Assistantships’ for graduates of universities in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Trust aimed to foster collaboration between Oxford's Medical School and those of universities in countries in the former British Empire. Universities in Canada were added to the Trust Deed in 1962.  

The donations from Lord Nuffield to medical research in Oxford have been known collectively since 2002 as the Nuffield Benefaction. Gifts and investments included ownership of land and other assets with development value, and contributed to a substantial portfolio of funding available for medical research. Ninety years of continued investment from the Trusts that were set up with this gift have helped shape the current landscape of medical sciences research at the University. In the preamble to the Deed, the University recorded its deep gratitude for Lord Nuffield’s “unexampled munificence” in making the donation. This is one of the most valuable gifts that the University of Oxford has ever received.  

While rooted in its historical connections, in the 21st Century the Nuffield Dominions Trust's mission has evolved to embrace a broader and more inclusive vision. It aims to foster meaningful partnerships between Oxford and research institutions in Commonwealth countries outside the UK, thereby enabling medical research of the highest quality. 

This Trust, now overseen by the Board of Trustees for the Nuffield Medical Trust, was updated in 2022 to reflect modern relationships with countries in the former British Empire, and was further updated in 2026 to extend eligibility for support to partnerships between Oxford and Universities in all Commonwealth nations.  

The Nuffield Medical Trustees will fund up to two Nuffield Medical Fellowships per year for exceptional researchers who will collaborate with partners at a Commonwealth university. In line with Lord Nuffield's original wishes for his gift in 1938, the Fellows will build mutually beneficial relationships with their partners in Commonwealth countries to share knowledge while conducting world-leading medical research.  

Further information on governance of the Nuffield Benefaction  

References:  

1. Nuffield Foundation (2013), Lord Nuffield: a Philanthropic Legacy