OBITUARY Mrs Jessie Mackay Gave Fine Service To City

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30044, 31 January 1963, Page 2

OBITUARY Mrs Jessie Mackay Gave Fine Service To City

, w Mrs Jessie Elizabeth Mackay, for 27 yean a member of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, died in Christchurch yesterday. In that time she served on all the board’s committees and when she decided not to stand for re-election again last September, she was chairman of the institutions committee. The. big vote Mrs Mackay always polled in elections was an indication of the public’s confidence in her.

A woman with a wealth of sympathy and understanding for children, the skk, the aged and the needy, Mrs Mackay brought a homomaker's practical common sense to the many fields of welfare work she undertook. Because of these qualities, as well as her warmth, graciousness, and her quick grasp of problems, Mrs Mackay's services were always in demand. To ell her interests ahe gave her ton attention and approached aarh new eOce with an eaaoHMaa to learn about every phaaa'of the work. When aha was appointed to the hospital board, for instance, she spent several days living to as an observer at the Christchurch Hospital She waa op at 0 ana. watching

patients’ breakfasts being prepared, studying diets and staying to see me patients tucked down lor the night Later, she spent a further period visiting hospital departments to get a better working knowledge of what was being done tor the sick. Children. SM Aged Ms*

Some 30 yean ago Mn Mackay, with Sir James Hay, started the Combined Children’s Homes Appeal and served on the committee until her last Alness. As the hospital board's representative on the Nurse Maude District Nursing Association, Mn Mackay took particular interest in the sseociationu memorial home for women and Averill House for man.

WlMl* CO th to COnmittM, Mrs Mackay saw the need for starting a laundry service for incontinent case* being nursed in their own home*. Bar sug-

gestfon to the hospital board became one of the most valued services to the aged sick to vnnstcnurcu. One of the original welfare officers of the Canterbury and Westland Crippled Children Society, Mn Mackay was deeply concerned with the care and treatment of those children in hospitals and in their own homes. After she relinquished her work for this society, she became official visitor for Heritage. National Council A li*e member of the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Women, she was its secretary for about 10 yean and vas also Dominion secretary for three yean. For 11 yean Mn Mackay was secretary of the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Churches and represented die Presbyterian Churches on the council’s committee. She was also a member of session at St Paul's Church (when she was married), one of tiie highest lay offices available to women.

Mn Mackay's welfare work also included the office of first secretary of the Christchurch Occupational Centra in Merivale lane. She was appointed

a Justice of the Peace in IM3. A member at the beard of uirecron ox zne varaßCDurcn Y.W.C.A., she served as its president for some yean. In 1863, Mrs Mackay was awarded an MBX and was invested by the Queen at toe ceremony held in the Civic Theatre during the Royal visit in 1854. Born in Westland, Mn Mackay was toe daughter of the late Mr and Mn J. McWhirter. Her husband, the late Mr William Mackay, died ebout 27 yean ago.

Mn Mackay to survived by a sister. Lady Weir, of Cambridge.