Did you know around 80% of the artworks in the National Gallery of Victoria’s permanent collection are there thanks to the initiative of one man?

Alfred Felton, a colonial businessman who lived in 19^th-century Melbourne, left a generous bequest of £380,000 – an enormous amount for his time – that now has a value of around $46 million, distributing between $1.5m and $2m annually to the not-for-profit sector.

Prudently managed by Equity Trustees, the Felton Bequest ensures Mr Felton’s philanthropic legacy lives on and continues to be distributed as per his wishes: one half to the NGV, securing artworks with “educative value” that “improve the level of public taste”; the other half to selected charitable organisations around Victoria, particularly those that benefit women and children.

So what’s the story of the man behind this extraordinary legacy? An Englishman by birth, Alfred Felton was a shrewd entrepreneur who made his money during the Victorian gold rush – not in digging for the precious metal but in selling goods to the thousands of others doing so. He then invested his profits into various industrial ventures around Melbourne as the city grew to become the wealthiest in Australia. In his 1947 book about Felton, Russell Grimwade, the son of Felton’s business partner Frederick Grimwade, wrote “The Felton Bequest will outlive any one man’s life and its cultural and charitable influence through the new world of the south will continue and grow for many years to come.” 71 years on, his words are as true as ever.