LATE SIR TRUBY KING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1941, Page 2

LATE SIR TRUBY KING

MEMORIAL UNVEILED CEREMONY IN WELLINGTON. A GREAT MAN HONOURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Looking straight out across the expanse of Lyall Bay from a dominant point in the picturesque grounds of the Karitane Hospital on Melrose Heights, Wellington, a simple, but striking, national memorial to the late Sir Truby King, founder of the Plunket Society, was opened by his Excellency the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, yesterday afternoon. Immediately below a bronze plaque on the memorial stone of the tomb was the inscription: “1858-1938.—Sir Truby King, Kt., C.M.G., M. 8., B.Sc— who unselfishly devoted his life to the promotion of the health of women and children in New Zealand. Beside him lies his wife, Isabella Cockburn King, obit. 1927. Together they founded the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (the Plunket Society).” “We have come here today to do honour to a great man,” said his Excellency. “I am indeed proud that it should be my privilege to unveil this memorial to Sir Truby King. There is no field of human endeavour which is more noble than the relief of suffering. There is no higher ambition for any man than to bring health to his fellow creatures. The work which Sir Truby King did in his lifetime, and which is being carried on by the Plunket Society today, makes a glorious chapter in the living history of New Zealand. A chapter which epitomises the civilisation which we are fighting to save. It is very fitting that this national memorial to so great a citizen of New Zealand should be placed here in the very centre of the work to which he devoted his life. It will serve as a constant encouragement to those who are following in his footsteps. Thanks largely to his devoted labours, New Zealand can proudly claim the lowest rate of infant mortality in the world.”

Mrs J. Begg, Dominion president of the Plunket Society,. expressed her appreciation of the work of the designer and the builders of the memorial, saying it represented New Zealand’s recognition of a wonderful and selfless life devoted to the cause of the women and children of New Zealand, a work which was of even greater importance than hitherto in these troubled times.

Mr P. Fraser said New Zealand had produced many men of ability and greatness in its first 100 years, but none ranked higher as a result of his life’s work than Sir Truby King, whose influence in the humanitarian sphere had been felt in practically every country in the world. Only a few months ago, said Mr Fraser, when he was on the west coast of Africa, he saw work which had been inspired by Sir Truby King being carried on, and everywhere its influence was manifest, particularly among those who had first rallied to the standard of life-saving which he raised. There had been left a high and everlasting impression upon humanity of the work of a noble man whose greatness would endure and whose work would go on from generation to generation blessing thousands of children not yet born.