The Kendo Nagasaki Book and its Contribution to Charity.

Peter Thornley’s autobiography, “Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind the Mask” is a remarkable book for two principal reasons: firstly, Peter’s life story is astonishing, entertaining, and inspiring, and secondly, all the profits from sales of the book have been pledged to charity.

The latter point is clear from the cover of the book, where it is described as a “Charity Fund-Raising Book!” alongside pictures of Lee Rigby and the logo of the Lee Rigby Foundation, and a plea for people to buy the book to help raise “…one million pounds for the Lee Rigby KNF*”. The asterisk after this wording leads to a brief explanation on the back outside cover of the book, as follows:

* The Lee Rigby KN Foundation is so named after the charity that Lyn Rigby formed as a positive legacy for her son Lee partnered with the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation on the idyllic Moor Court Estate in rural Staffordshire.

The shared vision of the partnership was that the Lee Rigby Foundation and the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation would jointly develop respite facilities on the Moor Court estate. Together we came up with some extremely ambitious plans which included a residential centre with individual rooms and separate apartments, at least three to four 4-bedroom accessible villas for those with major mobility difficulties or recovering from major trauma to stay in with their families, and extensive leisure facilities including an arts centre, gym, and therapy pool. It was hoped that the outcome of this partnership, which we called the Lee Rigby KNF or the Lee Rigby KN Foundation, would be that Moor Court became one of the country’s leading respite facilities, and the work had already begun.

At the end of April 2019 the Lee Rigby Foundation decided to provide respite breaks in different ways and they withdrew from Moor Court, but the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation still has the same aims at the site. Therefore, even though the Lee Rigby Foundation has left and they will not be contributing further to the project, the project itself continues, it will continue to run under the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation, and the proceeds from sales of Peter Thornley’s remarkable autobiography will continue to support the project.

That the Lee Rigby Foundation was entirely behind the project is clear from Lyn’s ‘Foreword’ in the book and their granting unconditional permission to use Lee’s likeness and their charity’s logo on the book cover, and three print runs were completed before they decided to withdraw from Moor Court. Consequently, since there are still books for sale and the charitable aims at Moor Court remain the same, the book will continue to be sold and continue to support those aims. None of the book’s income was ever intended to be paid directly to the Lee Rigby Foundation or be used for anything other than the goals shared with the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation here at Moor Court, so please be assured that buying this book still contributes towards extending the charity facilities here.

We hope this clarifies matters; working with the Lee Rigby Foundation we achieved a great deal and helped many people and with your help we are committed to continuing this work.