Tribute to Truby King, 1938-02-11

Rights Information
Year
1938
Reference
1966
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1938
Reference
1966
Media type
Audio
Duration
00:21:37
Credits
RNZ Collection
Beeby, Bernard, Narrator
St Barbe Holland, Herbert, 1882-1966 (b.1882, d.1966), Speaker/Kaikōrero
Shelley, James, 1884-1961, Narrator
Lambie, Mary I. (Mary Isabel), 1890-1971, Speaker/Kaikōrero

Organ music opens the programme - "A tribute to Sir Frederic Truby King, benefactor of mankind".

Broadcast on the day after his funeral in 1938, it is narrated by Bernard Beeby and Professor James Shelley (the Director of the National Broadcasting Service at the time). Figures revealing the reduction in infant mortality are read and are called "Sir Truby King's monument."

A biography of Sir Truby King is given with details of his education and early career in mental health, followed by his work in improving the health of dairy calves, which he then used as the basis for his work on infant nutrition. The Plunket Society was established on 14 May 1907 at a public meeting in Dunedin. An excerpt of his address to the meeting is read, about the need to replicate mother's milk for children whose mothers could not breast-feed them. The involvement and support of the Governor-General's wife, Lady Plunket is detailed, along with the difference between Plunket and Karitane nurses. Death rates were halved by the adoption of his techniques.

Miss Mary Lambie, Director of the Division of Nursing of the Department of Health and a former Plunket nurse, speaks on the use of the Plunket system in the many countries she has visited.

Finally, the Bishop of Wellington Herbert St Barbe Holland, is heard paying tribute to Dr King in his oration at the state funeral held at St Paul's Cathedral on 12 February 1938. Organ music closes the programme.