Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Beaverbrook, Lady
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Dunn, Lady
- Marcia Anastasia Christoforides
- Christofor
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1909-1994
History
Marcia Anastasia Christoforides was born on July 27, 1909 in Sutton, England. She worked as the personal secretary of Sir James Dunn, and they eventually got married in 1942. Upon his death in 1956 she became the beneficiary of his estate and the Sir James Dunn Foundation, which was to be used for charitable purposes. Lady Dunn gave $2.5 million for construction of Sir James Dunn Science Building at Dalhousie in 1957, in her late husband’s honour. She remarried in 1963, to the equally wealthy Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), becoming known as Lady Beaverbrook. In 1967 she established the Sir James Dunn Law Library in the Weldon Building, as well as establishing seven Sir James Dunn law scholarships ($1500 a year, upped to $2500 in 1967, ended in 1978). In 1967 she was given an honorary degree from Dalhousie. She became Dal’s second Chancellor in 1968 (until 1990) after CD Howe. In 1968 she gave $500,000 for the Sir James Dunn Theatre in the Dalhousie Arts Centre. After a fire at the law school in 1985, she donated $2 million to restore the law school and its library holdings. Former chancellor CD Howe considered her the Guardian Angel of Dalhousie. She contributed over $300 million in her life from Dunn and Beaverbrook estates to charitable donations. The Sir James Dunn Foundation and Lady Dunn (Beaverbrook) gave around $22 million to charities in the Maritimes, and $5 million to Dalhousie from 1957-1994. Lady Dunn passed away in 1994.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Related entity
Dunn, James Hamet, Sir (1874-1956)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
family
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Married to Sir James Dunn from 1942-1956
Related entity
Dalhousie University. Schulich School of Law (1883-)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
1957-1994
Description of relationship
Lady Beaverbrook (Marcia Anastasia Christoforides), widow of Sir James Dunn, established the Sir James Dunn Law Library in the Weldon Building, as well as establishing seven Sir James Dunn law scholarships. She donated $2 million to restore the law school and its library holdings after the 1985 fire, and was said to be the