God particle physicist Peter Higgs left a £3.2m estate and donated to charities

Professor Peter Higgs left an estate valued at £3,227,516 and directed about £200,000 of it to a range of charities, with his Nobel Prize medal to be gifted to the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Peter Higgs's will shows an estate of £3,227,516 and a series of charitable legacies. Higgs predicted the particle known as the Higgs boson while at the University of Edinburgh and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013. He died peacefully at home in April 2024 at the age of 94 after a short illness. Papers list property, cash and other assets that together make up his estate. Key details: - The estate total is listed as £3,227,516, and about £200,000 was set aside for charitable gifts. - Legacies of £45,000 were left to Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). - Gifts of £35,000 were allocated to Cancer Research UK and Shelter Scotland. - Further payments of £15,000 were directed to the Martin Ryle Trust, the University of Edinburgh Development Trust, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Save the Children, the British Red Cross, Age Scotland, Amnesty International and the Civil Liberties Trust. - He instructed that his Nobel Prize in Physics medal be given to the University of Edinburgh; the remainder of the estate is to be inherited by his family. - Records show two Edinburgh properties worth around £1.3 million, personal effects and cash of about £1.4 million, and other assets valued at over £500,000; items from his estate later raised £37,632 at auction. Summary: The will records modest charitable legacies to a range of organisations and a formal transfer of the Nobel Prize medal to the University of Edinburgh. The bulk of the estate will pass to his family. Undetermined at this time.