Charles Sykes started his career as a twelve year old office boy, and became a successful businessman in the West Riding knitting wool trade with his own four-storey mill at Princeville, Bradford. He achieved his life ambition in his eighty-second year when he launched the Charles Sykes Trust on 16th December 1954.

He had promised his first wife in 1913, that if he ever became wealthy he would help those in distress who had not been as fortunate as himself.

A year after his first wife died in 1933, he donated his Harrogate home, Carlton Lodge, to the town, it then became a nursing home. He bought the Wondale Hotel, Harrogate in 1954 and turned it into a home for twenty old people living on small pensions.

On the launch of the Trust his second wife, Elsie said of her husband that he had always been generous.

The original capital sum of the Trust has been increased over the years by substantial donations from various sources including Mr & Mrs Sykes, and prudent investment policies. The Trust is still willing to receive donations, from any person(s) who wish to support good works by leaving a bequest or donating permanent capital, to an active, effective, and prudently run charity. The investment policy of the Trustees is the preservation and enhancement of the real value of the capital and income of the Trust by investment in a well-diversified portfolio of high quality and easily negotiable financial assets. The Charles Sykes Trust is an unincorporated association, governed by a Trust Deed and Scheme.

The current Trustees are still mindful of the principles and preferences of Charles and Elsie Sykes in setting their criteria for grant making.

Charles Sykes died in 1967 aged ninety-four.

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