Prince Albert was the founding President of the Royal Commission that was set up to administer the Great Exhibition. The exhibition made a profit of £186,000 (estimated to be worth around £22 million in 2013); this money was used to buy land in South Kensington, where institutions including Imperial College, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Science, Natural History and Victoria & Albert museums were built.
The Royal Commission is still in existence, and is today chaired by Princess Anne. Since 1891 its role has been to provide postgraduate scholarships for students to study in Britain and abroad, and former scholars include thirteen Nobel Prize laureates. The Commission currently has capital assets of over £76 million, and makes an annual charitable disbursement of over £2 million.
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