Following his death last year, Snowman inventor Raymond Briggs has bequeathed virtually all of his £6 million inheritance to charity.
The artist passed suddenly in August at the age of 88, having spent his final weeks in the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Mr. Briggs enjoyed a long and prosperous career and is best recognized as the ‘grumpy’ mastermind behind the 1978 children’s favorite, which remains a holiday tradition.
Since its release, more than 5.5 million copies of the wordless picture book have been sold worldwide, and it is still televised every Christmas.
Following his death last year, The Snowman creator Raymond Briggs gave nearly all of his £6 million inheritance to charity.
The artist passed suddenly in August at the age of 88, having spent his final weeks in the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Since then, more than 5.5 million copies of the wordless children’s book The Snowman have been sold worldwide, and the story is aired every Christmas.
With the exception of a few donations, Mr. Briggs left the majority of his £6,019,502 fortune to his trustees to distribute to various organizations.
His will reads as follows: “I give all of my personal property to my trustees free of tax, but without imposing any binding trust or obligation, and I request that they distribute it within two years of my death in accordance with any wishes I have expressed or included in any note found with this will or among my papers.”
“Any property not so distributed shall constitute the remainder of my estate.”
Mr. Briggs also handed Hilda Wheeler, Barry Newman, and Susan Thompson, all of Sussex, each $1,000 tax-free.
His residence, known as Green Cross house, was divided equally between Thomas and Clare Benjamin, his late partner’s children, with any expenditures covered by his inheritance.
It is unknown which charity will profit from his generosity, however Blood Cancer UK hailed the late artist in December for the ‘kind contribution’ in his will in remembrance of his wife Jean, who passed away from leukemia in 1973.
They stated, “Raymond was correct when he remarked, ‘We all die,’ but sometimes the good we do endures after we’re gone.
Raymond has left us with more than just his great stories. In addition, he left Blood Cancer UK a significant bequest in memory of his…wife, Jean.
So this Christmas, while we watch The Snowman, we won’t simply be mourning Raymond’s passing… We will be thankful for what he has left behind.’
Mr Briggs died on August 10, 2022, aged 88.
The author of Fungus the Bogeyman additionally stipulated that his tombstone would bear the inscription, “Raymond is not a normal person” – a favorite expression of his stated by his partner’s three-year-old granddaughter in 1997.
The phrase should be attributed to “Connie Benjamin, 3 years and 6 months old, in 1997.”
He requested that the stone have the same size and shape as his late wife’s.
In 2005, he confirmed to Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs that he would like this to be written.
She was just three and a half years old when she said this, according to his statement.
There was a brief hesitation, and then she just looked across the table and remarked, “Raymond is not a normal person.”
‘Brilliant. Terrific. Best praise I have ever received! Who desires normality?
Over the past 50 years, the best-selling author has sold millions of copies of works such as When the Wind Blows, Fungus the Bogeyman, Father Christmas, and Ethel & Ernest.
Above-pictured illustrator’s relatives stated he spent his final weeks at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, where they commended the ‘kind and compassionate care’ of the staff.
Mr Briggs is photographed outside Downing Street in 1985 (second from the left) with a group of authors and publishers, including Caroline Blackwood, who demanded action.
– Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister, on Nuclear Disarmament
Mr. Briggs’s first collection of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Trilogy, was illustrated in 1996, earning him the Kate Greenaway medal. Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), and The Snowman are later classics (1978)
Despite his wealth, he led a simple life, driving an old automobile and purchasing his clothing from a thrift store.
His works were renowned for their melancholy endings and morbid humor.
He continued, telling Sue Lawley, “Most endings are sad anyway.” The outcome is death.
Everyone dies in the conclusion of When the Wind Blows as the Snowman melts and the bear returns to the Arctic.
This is what we must all confront.
Briggs was born in Wimbledon Park, London, to lady’s maid and milkman parents.
In the age of 15, he enrolled at the Wimbledon School of Art with the intention of becoming a comic, before studying oil painting and figure drawing.
The Mother Goose Treasury, for which he created 897 pictures and received the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1966, established his reputation.
He married Jean Taprell Clark, a fellow artist with schizophrenia who died of leukemia in 1973, in 1963.
He subsequently authored and painted Father Christmas (1973), Father Christmas Goes on Vacation (1975), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), and The Snowman (1978).
From his home in Lewes, East Sussex, he worked at a huge desk with a view of the Sussex Weald, hand-lettering his books and doing everything else.
Until her death in 2015, Liz Benjamin was his partner for nearly four decades, and he became an unofficial stepfather to her children Tom and Clare, as well as a grandfather to Connie, Tilly, and Miles.
Throughout his career, he was awarded the Children’s Book of the Year, the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award, a CBE, and was the first individual entered into the British Comic Awards’ hall of fame.
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