Dame Dorothy Rita Fraser (née Tucker, 3 May 1926 – 24 May 2015) was a New Zealand community activist and local politician.

Biography

Early life and career

Fraser was raised in

Nūhaka Nūhaka is a small settlement in the northern Hawke's Bay Region of New Zealand's eastern North Island, lying on New Zealand State Highway 2, State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Gisborne, New Zealand, Gisborne. The road to Mahia turns off the highw ...

Hawkes Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

. Her parents were Ernest and Kate Tucker, the first of their eight children, and she had

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

ancestry. She was educated in Gisborne at Kaiti School (1936–39) and then Gisborne High School (1939–43). At an early age she was interested in politics and she obtained special dispensation to join the Labour Party when she was 14 years old, becoming the youngest person to ever join the Labour Party in its history. She proceeded to form a junior branch of the Labour Party in Gisborne. At age 15 she was the branch delegate to the annual Labour Party conference, the youngest person there. In 1947 she married

Bill Fraser William Simpson Fraser (5 June 1908 – 9 September 1987) was a Scottish actor who appeared on stage, screen and television for many years. In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play ''W ...

, and had two children together. Bill was MP for St Kilda from 1957 to 1981 and Dorothy worked for many years as his unpaid electorate secretary. It was said by contemporaries such as

Warren Freer Warren Wilfred Freer (27 December 1920 – 29 March 2013) was a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party. He represented the Mount Albert electorate from 1947 to . He is internationally known as the first Western politician ever ...

that Fraser overshadowed her husband with many thinking that she was better suited to be in Parliament.

Political career

She served on Dunedin Hospital Board for 27 years from 1953 to 1956 and again between 1962 and 1986. She served as the chair of the board between 1974 and 1986, the first woman to do so. Initially she had to be persuaded to stand for the Hospital Board and did not expect to win. She was stunned at her election and the Monday after she planned to resign her seat, but was talked out of it by friends. She was a

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Jules ...

lor for four years, winning a by-election in 1970 (only the second woman elected) and was re-elected in 1971. In

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

she unsuccessfully stood for Dunedin's mayoralty, finishing second to

Cliff Skeggs Sir Clifford George Skeggs (born 19 March 1931) is a New Zealand businessman from Dunedin, and was Mayor of Dunedin from 1977 to 1989. Early life and family Skeggs was born in Bluff, and was educated at Bluff School and Southland Technical ...

. She was on the executive of the Labour Party from 1958 to 1961 and was made a life member of the party. When her husband Bill announced in 1979 he would retire as MP for St Kilda, Fraser sought to replace him as the Labour nominee in the seat. This caused confusion as it contradicted with Bill stating that his main reason for retiring was to spend more time with his family. She nevertheless became a front runner to win the nomination, alongside university lecturer Michael Cullen, from a field of seven nominees. At the selection meeting in April 1980 she performed worse than expected. Speaking early, she had a runny nose from a

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

and was too short to reach the microphone to be heard properly. She ultimately lost the nomination to Cullen.

Later life and death

She served on over 40 small community organisations and directorships and consultancies including the Gibbs Committee (1987–88) and Monticello Trust Board (2001–08). Fraser died on 24 May 2015, aged 89. Her funeral service attracted 300 mourners.

Honours and awards

Fraser was made a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in 1959, and in 1977 she was awarded the

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'argent de la reine Elizabeth II) is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is p ...

. In the

1978 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1978 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginn ...

, she was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

for public services. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the

1987 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1987 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

, for services to the Otago Hospital Board and the community. She was given an honorary Doctorate of Literature from

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

in 1994.

Legacy

In 2012 the Dame Dorothy Fraser Lecture was instigated, an annual event to highlight the achievements of women in politics. The inaugural lecture was given by former Prime Minister

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

. Speakers have included: * Helen Kelly (2013) *

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(2014) *

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(2015) *

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(2016) *

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(2017) *

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Deborah Russell Deborah Faye Russell (born 14 January 1966) is a New Zealand academic and politician. She is a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party. Biography Early life Russell was born in Whangamōmona, a small town in ...

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Kiri Allan Kiritapu Lyndsay Allan (born 1984) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament (MP) in the New Zealand House of Representatives. A member of the Labour Party, she entered the House as a list MP in 2017, and won the East Coast electorate ...

and

Marja Lubeck Maria Josina Elisabeth "Marja" Lubeck (born 1965) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party. Early life and family Lubeck was born in the Netherlands, the eldest child of Valentin ...

(2019) *

(2020) *

Lianne Dalziel Lianne Audrey Dalziel (; born 7 June 1960) is a New Zealand politician and former Mayor of Christchurch. Prior to this position, she was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for 23 years, serving as Minister of Immigration, Commerce, Minister ...

(2022)

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Dorothy Rita 1926 births 2015 deaths Ngāti Kahungunu people New Zealand Labour Party politicians Members of district health boards in New Zealand Dunedin City Councillors 20th-century New Zealand women politicians 20th-century New Zealand politicians New Zealand feminists Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire New Zealand justices of the peace People educated at Gisborne Girls' High School People from Nūhaka