William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, fourth Earl of Ilchester (1795-1865), spent four years in Russia at the St Petersburg Embassy, was a friend of the Polish stateman Adam Czartoryski and a member of the Council of the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland. In his will he left to the University of Oxford the sum of £1,000 for the purpose 'of founding and establishing an Exhibition, Lecturership, or Scholarship, or Periodical Prize, for the encouragement of the study of the Polish and other Slavonic Languages, Literature, and History'. This bequest was accepted in 1866, and in 1870 Congregation approved the establishment of the Ilchester Endowment for the Encouragement of the Study of the Slavonic Languages, Literature, and History. It continues to support their study to this day.