History and background:

The Endres Memorial Trust is named after a Hungarian aviation pioneer, György Endresz. Born in 1893, he became a pilot in the First World War with the Austro-Hungarian Air Force. After the war he went to America where he raised funds for the first transcontinental flight from the United States to Hungary.

Endresz, with his navigator, Sándor Magyar, left New York on 15 July 1931 and they crossed the Atlantic in 26 hours and 20 minutes. (Charles Lindbergh's flight in 1927 took six hours longer). Their flight was also an example of Anglo-Hungarian co-operation supported by Lord Rothermere.

A year after his flight, Endresz died when his plane crashed near Rome airport when he was on his way to an international conference on aviation.

His widow moved to England, where she actively helped the Hungarian community. She died in 1990 and, in her will, offered part of her estate to a charity to be set up to foster British-Hungarian co-operation. In 1993 this charity was formed.