Dame Margery Merlyn Myer (; 8 January 19003 September 1982) was an Australian philanthropist, who was notable for her charitable work.Australian Honours
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Birth and marriage

Born as Margery Merlyn Baillieu in

Queenscliff, Victoria Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe. At the , Queenscliff had a populati ...

, Australia, to George Francis Baillieu and Agnes Sheehan, a well-to-do couple, she attended Cromarty Girls' School, and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

.Women Australia: Merlyn Myer
/ref> On her 20th birthday, 8 January 1920, she married Melbourne retail businessman

Sidney Myer Sidney Myer (born Simcha Myer Baevski (); 8 February 18785 September 1934) was a Russian-born Jewish-Australian businessman and philanthropist, best known for founding Myer, Australia's largest chain of department stores. Early life Myer was ...

; she was his second wife. Her husband, who was originally named Simcha Baevski, arrived in Australia as a penniless Russian immigrant in 1899. He was a businessman and entrepreneur, who founded the

Myer Myer (stylised MYER, sometimes known as Myers) is an Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of products ...

retail company.

Children

The couple had four children:

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

, Neilma, Baillieu, and Marigold, all of whom were born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, United States. The family returned to Australia in 1929, where Sidney Myer died in 1934, leaving Merlyn a 34-year-old widow with four young children.

Charitable work

At the time of his death Sidney was a member of the Board of Management for the

Royal Melbourne Hospital The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), located in Parkville, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, is one of Australia's leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research. Th ...

and after his death Merlyn was asked to join the Board, on which she continued until 1976. She gave a lot of her time to the hospital.The People of the Royal Melbourne
For 10 years from 1937, she was a member of the National Council of the Australian

Red Cross Society The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest group of non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian aid, is composed of the following bodies: *The ''International Committee of the Red Cross'' (ICRC), a comm ...

. Merlyn was a generous benefactor of the Red Cross. She was the motivation for the establishment of the

Sidney Myer Music Bowl The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinc ...

in 1959, as a gift to the people of Victoria. The

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

was founded with a grant given by the Myers to the University of Melbourne.

Honours

In 1948, Merlyn Myer was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

and on 11 June 1960, was elevated to Dame Commander within the order in recognition of her charitable work. Her title name became Dame Merlyn. The Merlyn Theatre at the

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. A ...

complex in Melbourne was named in her honour to mark the generosity of the Sidney Myer Fund, the

Myer Foundation The Myer Foundation is a major Australian philanthropic organisation. History The Sidney Myer Charitable Trust was established by the will of Sidney Myer, who died in 1934, leaving a portion of his estate for the benefit of the community. Myer's ...

and the individual members of the Myer family who supported the conversion of the Malthouse Theatre.

References

External links

Myer FoundationPortrait of Dame MerlynWorld Mail: Meet the Myers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myer, Merlyn 1900 births 1982 deaths Australian women philanthropists Australian philanthropists Philanthropists from Melbourne Australian people of French descent Australian Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire University of Melbourne alumni Burials at Box Hill Cemetery Australian Anglicans 20th-century women philanthropists Myer family