The 1926 Foundation is a Charitable Foundation, registered as a Scottish Trust, which was set up in August 2009 by John Cawthorn, who lived in Kelso and attended the High School there, in the Nineteen Forties and Fifties.

John moved to England in the late Fifties and became an English solicitor, but following his retirement as a lawyer he started a commercial project which has matured, and which will enable him to put something back into the community, thus the establishment of the Foundation.

The Foundation has two main objects:

The first is the support of educational, sporting, and pastoral (in the non-religious sense) activities in Kelso and the surrounding district.
The second is the support and development of a considerable collection of books on the subject of “The Great War and Associated Conflicts”.

This collection of books is now known as “The Russell Cawthorn Collection”, which is housed at St. Andrews University Library as a Named Modern Collection.