The W.D Booth Charitable Trust has been donating to the appeal for about 17 years, and has shown its support again this year. 

Trustee Jill Dearing said it’s the appeal’s reputation that keeps them donating. 

“We donate because we know it goes to the organisations that help those that are the most in need,” Mrs Dearing said. 

“Thats our main driver because we know it’s well spent.”

This year, the trust also launched a book in honour of its namesake, written by Julian Burgess. 

“That tells the whole story of Mrs Booth – right through from her childhood in the UK – though to her school years and how she made her money and how she left it,” Mrs Dearing said. 

“Basically, she was the local doctor’s wife and she came out here to marry during the war.

“She was English and quite wealthy in her own right and she had a really big portfolio of investment and [her husband and Winifred Daphne] had no children. So, when she passed away … I suggested that we call it the charitable trust.” 

Since starting the trust in 2017, more than $6 million has been donated to local causes. 

“And we still have the money we started with basically. It just come from managing the investments, with help from others,” Mrs Dearing said. 

Mrs Booth lived in Launceston for 60 years and died in 2000 aged 85.

The book, A Woman of Charity, is available at local bookstores. It is a chronological tale of Mrs Booth’s life as documented in her various letters and personal effects.

The documents were held by trustee Jill Dearing, but they have now been donated to Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

The 2017 Empty Stocking Appeal has raised more than $30,000. This amount is half of the appeal’s goal, with the appeal set to end on December 25. 

An anonymous donation of $5000 was also received on Tuesday. 

The Examiner editor Courtney Greisbach said she was pleased with the appeal’s tally so far. 

“Whether it’s $10 or $10,000 it all helps the four local charities deliver to people in our community in need,” she said. 

“We’ve had families donate $10 and service clubs its hard earned fundraising dollars. We are grateful for every donation.

“The work the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Pauls, City Mission and the Benevolent Society achieve around Launceston cannot be undersold.”