She was a founding member of the St Martin’s Island Trust, set up in 1958 by the late Dean Walter Hurst of St Paul’s Cathedral and Knox Church minister the Very Rev Dr Jim Matheson. The concept was based on Scotland’s Iona community.
"The mantra was ‘work and worship’ ... but it was mainly work," recalled Dr Matheson’s son, Professor Peter Matheson.
"The place was a dump, it really was," Ms Hancock said.
A sail-shaped chapel designed by Dunedin architect Bob Oakley was completed in 1973 and on Saturday, his son Norman and Ms Hancock unveiled a memorial plaque, supplied by the Oakley family, to mark its 50th anniversary.
The lower walls are of rammed earth, the benches from the Oreti, brought to the island for wrecking in the 1930s. The remains can still be seen by the jetty.
"We’re hugely indebted to Bob," Prof Matheson said, "and it’s wonderful to have members of the Oakley family here."
To end the short ceremony, Quarantine Island council member Beryl Maultby read a community prayer.
