Obituary Mrs H. Birks

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31633, 20 March 1968, Page 3

Obituary Mrs H. Birks

"The Press" Special Service i WELLINGTON, March 19. | Mrs Hilda Birks, of Lower! Hutt, a woman of outstand-I ing personality, died in Weillington on Monday. Mrs Birks was the wife of; the Crown Prosecutor, Mr W. R. Birks. She was well-known for her: charitable works round Wellington and Lower Hutt. ■ In 1967 Mrs Birks was awarded the 0.8. E. for services in social welfare and local affairs. She was also a winner of the Winston Churchill Trust award. Perhaps Mrs Birks’s greatest interests lay with problems relating to youth and family life. She was a foundation! member of the Hutt Valley Marriage Guidance Council

and one of the first selected Jor counsellor training. Mrs Birks devoted much of: her time to talking to school [groups about teen-age and: ■ marital problems. [ She also contributed a: [great deal to the work of: : the Save the Children Fund, | which she helped to establish in Lower Hutt. Last year Mrs Birks accompanied her husband on a jfour-month tour overseas. They attended meetings of the International Union of! Family Organisations, the’ United States National Coun-[ cil of Family Relations, the I Christian Family Movement, a marriage guidance con-i ference in England and a family organisation confer-j ence in Madrid. Mr and Mrs Birks had eight, adopted children, four boys: and four girls.