Marcia Anastasia Aitken, Baroness Beaverbrook (née Christoforides, previously Lady Dunn; 27 July 1909 – 28 October 1994) was a British philanthropist, an art collector, and racehorse owner.
[1] Born in Sutton, Surrey, England, she was the daughter of John Christoforides, a Cypriot tobacco merchant, and Mildred Nightingale-Boyes.
The couple maintained homes in England, France, and at the seaside resort of St. Andrews in New Brunswick, Canada, the province of her husband's birth.
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.
Lady Beaverbrook died in 1994 having donated the equivalent of nearly $300 million (at today's value) to support education, cultural undertakings and wildlife preservation.
In her memory, the Sir James Dunn Foundation of Saint John, New Brunswick made a $1 million donation toward the establishment of a student residence bearing her name at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.