Peter Nichol Russell Bequest

In 1896 the late Sir Peter Nicol Russell, of London (formerly of Sydney), presented to the University a sum of £50,000 for the endowment of the Department of Engineering. In 1904 he gave a second sum of £50,000, making £100,000 in all.

The second gift was made as an extension of the first endowment, with an additional obligation for the establishment of efficient teaching in Electrical Engineering and for the foundation of additional scholarships.

In making the second endowment, Sir Peter Russell stipulated that the Government of New South Wales should undertake to hand to the University, within three years, a sum of £25,000 to provide au extension of the buildings of the School of Engineering or to erect new buildings. This the Government agreed to do, and a new building has been erected from the designs prepared by the Government Architect.

The Deeds of Gift provide :– 1. That the Department of Engineering at present existing in the University, together with such additions as may be made thereto, shall be called the Peter Nicol Russell School of Engineering.

2. That the University shall, out of the income to be derived from the endowments, afford both practical and theoretical teaching in the following subjects, in so far as such subjects relate to the School of Engineering, viz., Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Surveying, Mining, Metallurgy, Architecture, and such further instruction as the Senate of the University may deem necessary to give effect to the intention of Sir Peter Russell in connection with the P. N. Russell School of Engineering.

3. That the University shall apply the income of the Fund in the maintenance of tile P. N. Russell School of Engineering, but shall not charge such income with any proportion of the cost of the existing buildings, nor with the expense or any proportion thereof of service by ordinary attendants, nor with the expense or any proportion thereof of the Professorships of Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, or the Challis Chair of Engineering.

4. That Scholarships shall be established for the encouragement of higher education in Mechanical Engineering, to be called Peter Nicol Russell Scholarships.

Other conditions of the Deeds of Gift relate to the mode of investment of the principal sum, and provide that any unused surplus of income shall be added to the principal sum and invested as if it formed a part of the original donation.

Taken from The University of Sydney Calendar, 1957(?), pp 312-313.