Marcia Anastasia Christoforides

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H. Reuben Cohen
Personal details
Born	Marcia Anastasia Christoforides 27 July 1909 New Brunswick, Canada
Spouses	James Hamet Dunn, 1st Baronet ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 1956)​ Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook ​ ​ (m. 1963; died 1964)​

Marcia Anastasia Aitken, Baroness Beaverbrook (née Christoforides, previously Lady Dunn; 27 July 1909 – 28 October 1994) was a British philanthropist, an art collector, and racehorse owner.^[1]

Early life and first marriage

Born in

.

Second marriage

Known as Christofor to her family and friends, on the death of her husband in 1956 she became the beneficiary of a large estate and also the administrator of a fund to be used for charitable purposes. One of her late husband's closest friends was his fellow New Brunswicker, Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook who acted as her advisor. The two developed a very close friendship and Lord Beaverbrook, who had been a widower for many years, came to have great respect for her. In June 1963 the eighty-four-year-old Beaverbrook and the fifty-three-year-old Lady Dunn married.^[4] Lord Beaverbrook had already used his fortune to greatly benefit the citizens of the province of New Brunswick in Canada. By virtue of their marriage, Aitken was able to name her the legal overseer of a large part of his estate that he wished to go to further charitable works.

Philanthropist

Lord Beaverbrook died a year after their marriage and Lady Beaverbrook was left with the responsibility of large benevolent fund. With this, and the funds from her first husband's estate, she became one of Canada's most prominent philanthropists. On behalf of her first husband considerable funds were donated to his alma mater,

. In 1967, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D.) from that institution and in 1968 she was appointed the University's Chancellor, a position she held for the next twenty-seven years.

Assassination attempt

Lady Beaverbrook's high-profile in British society and the publicity from her philanthropic work resulted in an assassination attempt. On 4 May 1971 a bomb was strapped to the underside of her Rolls-Royce Phantom VI car (which is coloured green and brown, her horse racing colours), placed there by The Angry Brigade, a British terrorist group. The device was detected before it exploded. The car was donated to the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, which sold it at auction in 2015.^[5]

Personal interests

A devotee of show horses and equestrian events, she was also a leading race-horse owner, spending a vast amount of money on horses.^[6] Her horses almost always had names made up of seven letters. Amongst the many thoroughbreds she owned were:

• Sprint Cup
  , on his retirement he was the highest ever stakes-winning gelding to have raced in the United Kingdom
• St. Leger Stakes and the 1975 Coronation Cup
  and was her highest rated racehorse
• Benson and Hedges Gold Cup as well as being runner-up in the 1976 Epsom Derby
• flat racing
  .
• Petoski - won the 1985 Prince of Wales's Stakes and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes
• St. Leger Stakes
• Terimon - runner-up in the 1989 Epsom Derby and won the 1991 International Stakes
• 2,000 Guineas

She started owning horses in the late 60s and initially had her horses trained by

. She bred horses as well as owning them.

Legacy

Lady Beaverbrook died in 1994 having donated the equivalent of nearly $300 million (at today's value) to support education, cultural undertakings and wildlife preservation. In addition to the charitable trusts from both of her husbands, the Christofor Foundation for charitable purposes was established by friends out of her personal estate. A lover of animals, among the many philanthropic causes Lady Beaverbrook supported, the established the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at the

Wolfville, Nova Scotia

. Christofor Hall was officially opened on 26 October 2002.

Notes

References

• Lord Beaverbrook (1961). Courage: The Story of Sir James Dunn. Fredericton, NB: Brunswick Press.
• Nowell, Iris (1996). Women Who Gave Away Millions: Portraits of Canadian Philanthropists. Hounslow Press.

Academic offices
Vacant Title last held by C. D. Howe	Chancellor of Dalhousie University 1968 – 1990	Succeeded by H. Reuben Cohen