Hilda Stevenson

Dame Hilda Mabel Stevenson DBE (née McKay; 1893–1987) was an Australian philanthropist and community worker.

Personal life/early years

Born as Hilda Mabel McKay in Ballarat, Victoria, her father was Hugh Victor McKay, the inventor of the combined harvester. She attended Clarendon College and Presbyterian Ladies College. Her first marriage was in 1916 to Cleveland James Kidd. Kidd died in 1923. In 1936 she remarried, to Colonel George Ingram Stevenson, CMG. She had one child, a daughter, by her second marriage.

Philanthropy

• Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne – she donated £100,000 in 1958 for the establishment of a Chair of Paediatrics at the hospital, to be administered by the University of Melbourne
• Florey Laboratories (University of Melbourne programme)
• International House (University of Melbourne programme)
• Sunshine Foundation, founder/trustee
• Victorian Arts Centre

Honours/awards

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 31 December 1960
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire 8 June 1963
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1 January 1968
• Honorary doctorate of laws by the University of Melbourne, 1973

Archival resources

• University of Melbourne, Baillieu Library Special Collections Papers, 24 March 1980—19 November 1980, 81/110; The University of Melbourne, Baillieu Library Special Collections.