We had a great reaction to our recent article with Sue from the Tantum Trust. But chatting with Sue piqued our curiousity and we wanted to find out more about the origins and history of this local charity. 

As a result, it was a pleasure to meet long term local residents Carl and Sue Tantum at Oliver’s coffee shop recently for a chat. Just a reminder that keen-eyed residents will recognise the surname Tantum from the charity store at the bottom of Shepherd’s Hill. We were curious to find out what inspired Carl to set up the charity.

The trust was established over 30 years ago in Bordon in 1992. Carl told us how, back then, he was running the Bordon Chamber of Commerce and was living in Headley. He described the Chamber as rather a disparate group of approximately 80 members. Whilst the Chamber was doing great things for local business, Carl was increasingly struck by the need that it should also benefit the wider community.

Carl’s desire to help others had roots much further back. As a thirty year old living in Bournemouth, he had joined the Saint Vincent de Paul charity (SVP), a Roman Catholic organisation whose mission is to support communities through compassion and care. When he moved to Grayshott in the 1970s, he discovered that Grayshott had their own SVP branch. He quickly got stuck in, making a difference to the community under the governing principles of ‘care’ and ‘compassion.’ Their work centred around visiting the lonely and looking after those struggling financially. By the time he had finished his spell of volunteering at Saint Vincent de Paul, Carl had set up numerous other branches, with his impact spreading to nearby towns such as Farnham and Fleet.

In those dates, the Cenacle Convent would have been found next to the Roman Catholic Church in Grayshott. (Incidentally, the convent was demolished in 1999 and replaced with private housing but had enjoyed a fascinating history prior to that, also serving as a Canadian military hospital during WWI, treating 835 casualties). The convent used to run classes for children on a Saturday morning but Carl recognised that many could not access them due to lack of transport. As a result, he raised funds to purchase a bus that could get the children to and fro. He quickly found further uses for his transportation. The bus had a ramp on suitable for wheelchairs and he started to take long-term patients from Holy Cross hospital out on trips. For most, this would be their only time outside the four walls of the hospital.

Unfortunately, the bus struggled to stand the test of time. As the years went on, it became unfit for purpose. But Carl would not be deterred! In just 6 months, he raised £20,000 to cover the costs of a new vehicle. This new bus could accommodate up to 19 walking, 10 wheelchairs or two trolley beds. His work continued and mushroomed… at one point his organisation had a full-time ambulance controller and a fleet of four vehicles.

But Carl was juggling this incredible volunteering work with a full-time business. He owned Headley Financial Services which, at its peak, employed as many as 30 staff. The sheer work load of trying to juggle both business and volunteering took its toll. The stress he was under brought on alopecia. He handed over the reins and what he had created formed the basis of the community transport that still exists in Bordon today.

However, Carl seems to be one of those larger-than-life characters who don’t know the meaning of rest. He is certainly a force to be reckoned with and an extremely likeable gentleman – he has just celebrated his 89th birthday but still seems to have the energy of a man 20 years his junior!

Predictably, he didn’t stop wanting to help others when his involvement in the transport scheme came to an end. Instead, he turned his attentions to another plan, setting up a small stall in the Forest Road Community Centre in Bordon where he sold items to raise money for the community. Quickly proving to be successful, he negotiated a larger space in the same building. In return for giving 30% of turnover to East Hampshire District Council, he was given a large room at the back of the building. Word spread, people donated and the Bordon Charity was founded. Carl ran everything single-handedly for 11 years before finally getting in help but, even then, the operation was incredibly streamlined to ensure that as little as possible was spent on overheads and as much as possible could be given back to the community.

The Bordon Charity was subsequently renamed the Bordon-Liphook-Haslemere Charity (BLH Charity) as new stores were opened but when the fourth store was opened in Grayshott, it was decided that the name was getting a little too wordy! And instead, it was quite rightly renamed the Tantum Trust in recognition of Carl’s work in setting it up.

Carl has now stepped down from the Tantum Trust, and whilst of course he retains an interest in it, he leaves it firmly in the hands of the next generation to run the organisation. These days, he enjoys singing in the church choir until the firm direction of Pauline Prior and has a passion for classic cars which keeps him busy.

But he hasn’t completely stopped volunteering. Today you will also find him visiting nursing homes as well as local residents in their houses, giving communion to those who are housebound or unable to make it to a church service. Carl is an incredibly successful businessman – he ran a financial services business for most of his life – but above all, he strikes us as a man who has lived by those founding principles of care and compassion that he learned as a young man in church. He truly has given everything he has to help others within our community. He thoroughly deserved his MBE, which was awarded to him in 2013 for services to charity in East Hampshire.

Thanks to Carl’s vision, the Tantum Trust has distributed over £1.5 million to local people in need since it was founded in 1992. From its origins in a bay window of a community hall in Bordon, it now has three shops generating funds from which grants are made. What an incredible impact to have on the community in which has lived for over six decades.