About

Volvox Trust was set up in 2013 by John Thompson Rowling, a prominent Christian surgeon, who spent most of his working life in Sheffield.

Born in Leeds in 1921, John was the youngest of three siblings from a deeply Christian family whose medical connections dated back to Elizabethan times.

He spent time in Malaya (modern-day Malaysia) from 1948-50, during the Malayan Emergency, where his heroics saw him mentioned in despatches and promoted to the rank of major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The Trust was settled with a substantial endowment, and its aim is to generate income from its investments, such income to be used to support the charitable objectives set out in the Trust Deed, which is its governing document. The name 'Volvox' is a play on words, from the Latin 'volvo', meaning 'to roll' - in addition to his medical skills, John Rowling was a scholar of Latin, Greek and English literature.