Jean Begg CBE (7 October 1886 – 15 February 1971) was a New Zealand welfare worker, educator, and YWCA administrator.
Jean Begg
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Jean Begg in 1931
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Born | 7 October 1886
Port Chalmers, Otago, New Zealand
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Died | 15 February 1971
Dunedin, New Zealand
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Occupation(s) | Social worker, educator, YWCA executive |
Begg was born in Port Chalmers, Otago, New Zealand, one of the ten children of Scottish immigrants Eliza Johnstone and John Begg. Her father was a tanner and rug maker.[1] She trained as a teacher at Dunedin Training College[2] attended the University of Otago,[3] and held a diploma in social work from Columbia University.[4]
Begg was a teacher at a missionary school and ran a health clinic in American Samoa as a young woman,[1][5] and helped to establish the Samoan Nursing Service.[6] In 1922, she represented New Zealand at the world convention of the YWCA in Philadelphia.[7]
She was general secretary of the Auckland YWCA from 1926 until 1931,[3] when she became general secretary for the National YWCA for India, Burma, and Ceylon.[4][8] Also in 1931, she headed New Zealand's delegation to the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference in Honolulu.[2]
During and immediately after World War II, Begg was director of the YWCA in the Middle East and North Africa,[9] setting up YWCA programs, including lodgings, weekly concerts in Egypt and a mobile library.[10][11] She worked in Lord Louis Mountbatten's South-East Asia Command, at hospitals for former prisoners of war in Singapore,[12] and served on the Middle East Welfare Council.[13] "The problems that beset the world will never be solved unless they are approached in a spirit of helpfulness and sacrifice," she declared in a 1945 speech.[14]
In 1946, Begg went to Tokyo for an ANZAC Day ceremony.[15] In 1947, she was director of YWCA Welfare in Japan,[16] and represented New Zealand at the YWCA World Council, held in Hangzhou, China.[17] In 1948 and 1949, she worked in London, setting up Helen Graham House, a YWCA hostel.[18][19]
Jean Begg had an audience with the Queen in 1943.[20] She was appointed an MBE in 1943, an OBE in 1946,[21] and a CBE in 1948.[1]
Begg retired to New Zealand in 1952.[22] She had a war pension, inherited a house, and died in 1971, aged 84 years, in Dunedin. She was given a military funeral at the soldiers' cemetery in Dunedin.[1]