Marcia Anastasia Christoforides

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

Born in Sutton, Surrey, England, she was the daughter of John Christoforides. For a number of years she worked as personal secretary for the wealthy Canadian financier James Hamet Dunn, 1st Baronet. Eventually their working relationship became personal although he was thirty-six years her senior. In 1942 she became his third wife after she had nursed him back to health from a coronary thrombosis which nearly claimed his life; his second wife was absent from his bedside during this crisis. She had been a devoted employee and he would seek her input on most every business matter for the rest of his life. The couple maintained homes in England, France, and at the Canadian seaside resort of St. Andrews in New Brunswick, the province of her husband's birth. In the late 1940s, Lady Dunn and her husband developed a friendship with the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí who painted several portraits of them, notably Equestrian Fantasy - Portrait of Lady Dunn. These works are now on permanent display at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

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. 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.

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