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Registered charity · London

The Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion is a registered charity (number 219279) based in London, governed by 16 trustees and chaired by Lynda Atkins DL since 2025. Latest income £168m (2025). Source: Charity Commission register, updated 25th October 2026.

Also known as Poppy Appeal, The Legion (Charity Commission)

  • 16 trustees
  • Income £168m (2025)
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Official record Charity Commission · updated 25th October 2026 · Sources · Free, no card or password

Network

The large node is The Royal British Legion. Red nodes are organisations, white nodes are people. Dashed links are historical or inferred. Click any node to explore.

Who leads it

Current trustees as listed by the Charity Commission, which does not publish previous trustees.

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People on this board also govern

Similar charities are matched by type of organisation or purpose and listed by latest income; shared trustees are formal board links. Neither is proof the organisations work together.

About

What it does
General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives, Disability and 3 more
Where
Throughout England And Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Belgium and more
Website
www.britishlegion.org.uk (opens in a new tab)
Registered
1977

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2025£168m£178m
  • 2024£161m£174m
  • 2023£147m£181m
Earlier years
  • 2022£154m£152m
  • 2021£137m£142m

Income trend, 2021 to 2025.

Income source mix, 2025: Government grants 2%. From the charity's annual return.

Charitable objects

(A) TO RELIEVE NEED, SUFFERING AND DISTRESS OF BENEFICIARIES AND THEIR DEPENDANTS AND TO FURTHER THE EDUCATION OF BENEFICIARIES AND THEIR DEPENDANTS; (B) TO RELIEVE NEED AND PROTECT THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH OF THE DEPENDANTS OF BENEFICIARIES WHO HAVE DIED OR BEEN SEVERELY INJURED; (C) TO RELIEVE SUFFERING, HARDSHIP AND DISTRESS TO DEPENDANTS CAUSED BY THE ABSENCE OF THOSE SERVING IN THE ARMED FORCES; (D) TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT SCHEMES FOR THE RESETTLEMENT, REHABILITATION, RETRAINING AND SHELTERED EMPLOYMENT OF BENEFICIARIES AND THEIR DEPENDANTS; AND (E) TO PROMOTE THE COMMEMORATION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT OF THOSE WHO HAVE DIED WHILST SERVING IN THE ARMED FORCES.

Grants received

432 grants · £25,338,537 total

360Giving data, published by funders. Coverage only includes funders who publish their grants to 360Giving, so these figures are a floor, not a complete picture.

Top funders

  • Ministry of Defence · £20,113,767 (60 grants)
  • Postcode Support Trust · £1,505,000 (3 grants)
  • The National Lottery Community Fund · £1,353,800 (287 grants)
  • Cabinet Office · £1,190,000 (5 grants)
  • Garfield Weston Foundation · £625,000 (2 grants)

Most recent

Board analysis

Board DNA

How this board is put together, from Charity Commission trustee records and Companies House - deterministic, no AI.iBoard compositionCounted from the dated Charity Commission trustee register: the current board only, past trustees excluded.

16 trustees on the board

2.9y median 2.5y
average tenure
8y
longest tenure

Trustees past 6 years

6.4y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (12)

Portfolio (4)

2
company-linked trustees

Sector coverage iSector coverageThe charitable fields this board's trustees govern in elsewhere, by Charity Commission classification. Excludes this charity.

Education/training 16General Charitable Purposes 16The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives 13Disability 1Other Charitable Purposes 1The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty 1

Commercial experience iCommercial experienceThe industries this board's members are company directors in, by Companies House SIC code. Excludes this organisation's own company.

Health and social care 2Arts and leisure 1Professional services 1

Succession forecast iSuccession forecastThe number of board seats likely to open in the next twelve months - summed across the board from each dated trustee’s tenure - and the profile worth recruiting next. From the filed record, deterministic.

🔒 Succession forecast is a Pro feature - the board seats likely to open in the next year and the ideal next trustee. Explore Pro →

Health of the organisation facts side by side - the conclusion is yours

Income v spending, filed accountsiIncome v spendingTotal gross income and expenditure from filed annual returns, Charity Commission, last 5 years.
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
incomespending£168.5m latest income · spending exceeded income in 2024 and 2025
ReservesiReserves12 x free reserves / annual expenditure, from the Part B annual return. The sector median is computed across all Part B filers in the same income band.

7.0 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.5 months · was 9.1 in 2021

1765 from 1567 in 2021
EmployeesiEmployeesHeadcount as filed in Part B annual returns, per financial year. Shown exactly as filed; year-on-year figures may be filed on different bases, so a comparison is only shown when the filings are plausibly comparable.

Sources

Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.

Record details
Registered charity number
219279
Status
Registered
Governing document
ROYAL CHARTER GRANTED 21 APR 1925AS AMENDED BY SUPPLEMENTAL CHARTER DATED 10 APR 1979AS AMENDED BY SUPPLEMENTAL CHARTER DATED 27 MAY 1993AS AMENDED BY SUPPLEMENTAL CHARTER DATED 30 MAY 2003AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 08 OCT 2019
Contact on the register
02032072100 · sgray@britishlegion.org.uk
Edition
Register edition compiled 25th October 2026
Labels
Official record from the register · Calculated derived by Governance Register. Anything added by an organisation or person is labelled as provided by them.

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