Supporting The RNLI

The late Robert Furniss Riding (known as Bob) was a passionate supporter of maritime charities. He had a past love of sailing and felt it was very important for charities such as the RNLI to be supported as much as possible.

After Bob’s sad passing in May 2022, his support of the RNLI continued.

Over the years, Bob had acquired a substantial car collection. With many of these being classics and rare vehicles, his collection was worth more than £1.5 million.

To show how generous Bob was, the RNLI was named the Residuary Beneficiary of the Robert Furniss Riding estate. This meant that, after his death, when his collection of cars went to auction, the money raised would go to the charity.

We purchased one of Bob’s cars – our 1991 Maserati Bi-Turbo Spyder E and, in the process, offered our support to the RNLI.

The RNLI does extremely important work keeping people safe at sea. Everyone here at Bridge Classic Cars is very proud that we have played a small part in supporting them and we are honoured to be a part of Bob’s story.

Helen Hopkins, head of legacies at the RNLI, said:

‘We are incredibly grateful to the late Robert Furniss Riding for naming the RNLI as one of the beneficiaries of his estate, along with many other beneficiaries.

The sale of the classic car collection will form some of the donation as the RNLI is the residuary beneficiary, so we’re very grateful to see it raise so much money.

Six in 10 lifeboat launches are only possible due to gifts in wills. Any gift left to the RNLI, large or small, makes a huge difference.’

We are very keen to support and promote local and national charities to help support them in their work and this is just one of the ways we have done so in the past.

The full story of our 1991 Maserati Bi-Turbo Spyder E can be seen here.

All of our charity projects can be seen here.