Historical curiosities

Some have been rehomed in collections. This is part one of an occasional series looking at the stories behind them.

Audrey O'Brien's garden

On Kelburn Parade, one can rest on a bench with a curious plaque:

“A seat for everyone and no one” – EM Kingston

It seems the story as to how and why this came to be here is lost. Across the road, though, the same cannot be said for the plaque marking a commemorative garden under the von Zedlitz Building:

This garden was given in memory of Audrey B. O’Brien B.Sc.
1927 – 1981
By her family

Audrey Cook was a Karori girl, the youngest in a working-class family and first to go to university. At Victoria University of Wellington, she majored in botany. She met husband Kevin while studying, the eldest son of a working-class Irish family from Island Bay. He, like Audrey, was the first in his family to go to university.

Both Audrey and Kevin were heavily involved in the Victoria University College Student Association in the 1950s. Salient records that Audrey was the women’s Vice-president of VUWSA in 1950 and held the position of secretary in 1953. That same year, she is noted as being makeup controller for the production of ‘Marsqueraid’! Audrey and Kevin married in 1955 and together raised seven children. Kevin, who had been a student representative on University Council, went on to serve as an elected member of Council from 1959 – 1984, including as Chancellor from 1974 – 1984.

At the time Audrey died, daughter Anne O’Brien, who is now Director of the Auckland Writers Festival, was a student of literature and spent a lot of time in the von Zedlitz Building. She remembers her mother as a “vibrant” woman—“dynamic, generous and engaged with the community… and a lover of outdoors.” The garden was planted after Audrey’s death in September 1981—a fitting way to remember the botanist who gave so much of herself to the University.

The Jack Ilott plaque

On the third floor of the Kirk Building, students and staff sit down to reasonably-priced Krishna curries in an unlikely sunroom overlooking Kelburn Parade. The space is the result of balconies being covered when Murphy Overbridge was installed. Inside, a small engraving seems to go unnoticed by many. It reads:

Jack Ilott B.Com 1940
Student, after retirement, from 1982.
Generous benefactor of the university and donor of this coffee lounge in 1985.

Ilott was the son of New Zealand advertising baron John Ilott and Australian songstress Hazel Hall, and heir to Ilott Advertising. After his time in commerce—by which time he was 70 and retired—Ilott returned to the University to study politics. On looking around he resolved that modern students were too hardworking and, with a substantial gift, decided to provide a coffee lounge to enable “the important, informal side of education”.

Ilott’s appetite for healthy discussion and exchanging ideas is captured in a 1943 letter to Salient:  ‘Memory is but a fickle jade, yet your last two issues, especially that of June 23rd, are among the best I can ever remember reading—and I don't agree with quite a few of the views expressed. Good luck to you and keep up the good work.’

Ilott had a significant hand in ensuring the success of many of the University’s development projects, such as the construction of Te Herenga Waka Marae and the refurbishment of Hunter Building. He was made a Hunter Fellow in 1998. Today, some who visit the old coffee lounge reside in Everton Hall, a hall of residence that Ilott also helped found. His contributions to society extended well beyond the University and include helping establish the National Heart Foundation, among other services.