Trustees of the Dr Marjorie Barclay Trust yesterday visited one of the trust’s main beneficiaries, the Otago Museum.
They also marked the anniversary with a cocktail party, attended by Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull, and celebrated Dr Barclay’s life and the hard work of beneficiary organisations named in her will.
Over the past 40 years, the trust has distributed grants totalling more than $6,525,000, including $1,121,000 to the museum, organisers said.
Museum director Dr Ian Griffin said the trust’s strong support had "made a critical difference".
The latest trust grants are: Otago Museum ($50,000); the Sisters of Mercy at Mercy Hospital ($50,000); the Order of St John ($45,000); Age Concern Otago ($40,000); Forest and Bird Otago ($45,000); the Blind Foundation ($45,000); the Otago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ($50,000); the Pacific Leprosy Foundation ($25,000), and Malaghan Institute of Medical Research ($50,000). Trustee Nerissa Barber said yesterday’s events were a "great celebration" of Dr Barclay, and continued the trust’s positive relationship with the "very forward-looking museum".
Born in 1899, Ruth Marjorie Cruickshank Barclay enrolled at the Otago Medical School near the end of World War 1, and became, in 1923, one of only a few female medical graduates in the country.
She entered the relatively new field of diagnostic radiology and, after further overseas training, she was, in 1931, appointed diagnostic radiologist to the Otago Hospital Board, also lecturing at the medical school.
She resigned those posts in 1942, taking up private practice in Dunedin.
She died in the city in 1978, having bequeathed her estate to form the trust.
