TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1941, Page 4

TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE

MRS. GABY RETIRES FROM

ST. JOHN WORK

REMARKABLE TRIBUTES

After 28 years of public service, Mrs. M. F. Gaby, MJB.E., lady corps superintendent of the St. John Ambulance Association and an officer of the Order of St. John, is retiring from public life and she and her husband are going to live at Otaki. Last night there was a large gathering in her honour, the St. John Ambulance Association's large hall being filled with people, including a full representation of the ambulance corps. Mrs. Gaby was accompanied by her husband, and when they arrived the St. John Voluntary Aids formed a guard of honour for them and presented Mrs. Gaby with two bouquets of roses.

It was a notable occasion, the tributes paid to Mrs. Gaby being remarkable. Speakers and special guests included Mrs. P. Fraser, wife of the Prime Minister, the Mayor and Mayoress, Mr. and Mrs. T. C. A. Hislop, Sir James Elliott, chairman of the association, and Lady Elliott; Mr.

C. S. Falconer, secretary of the commandery of St. John; Mrs. Barltrop, lady district superintendent; Mr. W. W. Dutton, officer in charge of the district; Mr. Ward, former district commissioner; Nurse Small, commandant of the Red Cross Voluntary Aids; Miss Fowler,, of the Red Cross Society; and Sister MacKenzie, assistant commandant of the St. John Voluntary Aids. Mr. S. C. Smith, corps superintendent, was in the chair, and the and hostess were Mr. s V. Boesley, corps secretary, and Miss V. Anquetil, lady corps officer. Telegrams of greeting were read from Dr. Daisy Platts-Mills, a former officer of the order, and Dr. Ada Platts-Mills, the former lady superintendent.

UNTIEING DEVOTION

The chairman, speaking on oehalf! of the Wellington Corps, said that Mrs. j Gaby had regarded her association with the St. John Ambulance as her life's work and that she had put into each year of her 28 years' service to others more than most people put into a lifetime. She hac) done more than anyone else in building up the nursing division and had! endeared herself to all. • The Mayor paid tribute to the effectiveness of Mrs. Ga'by's work, which, he said, covered a wide field of activity extending far beyond her work for the St. John Ambulance. So far as her association with the St. John Ambulance Brigade went, he mentioned only a few of her main activities with this body. They included particularly nursing through the influenza epidemic of 1918 at the Public Hospital, Wellington, and at Scots College in 1919, and again at the Wellington Hospital in 1928. She had a fine record of war work, both in the last war and the pre* sent one, and she was also on duty throughout every diay at the Centennial Exhibition. Her self-sacrificing devotion to her work had brought great distinction to herself and immense benefit to the community which she served.

FIRST TO SERVE IN HOSPITAL

Mr. C. S. Falconer, secretary of the commandery, in conveying the commandery's appreciation, said that Mrs. Gaby was the first voluntary aid in New Zealand to serve in a public hospital, and by her example opened up this form of training to all the aids that had followed. In the last war she was one of the leaders of a signallers' corps at Wellington South which had the approval of the Army authorities. Mrs. Barltrop voiced the best wishes of her fellow-workers, and Sir James Elliott expressed his unbounded admiration for Mrs. Gaby's work. She was the personification of everything that was best in the; spirit of St. John, he said. He also paid a high tribute to Mr. Gaby. Mrs. Gaby, in reply, said how sorry she was to give up duty and she presented the corps with a framed code of duty to be hung in the hall. She and her husband were the recipients of two comfortable armchairs, symbolic of their retirement from public life, the presentation being made by Mr. Dutton. Aft<sr several concert items had been given and. supper served, » everyone took the opportunity of personally bidding Mrs. Gaby farewell.