Sir Frederic Truby King, generally known as Truby King, was a New Zealand health reformer and Director of Child Welfare.
11 Facts About Truby King
2.
Truby King is best known as the founder of the Plunket Society.
3.
Truby King was privately educated by Henry Richmond and proved to be a keen scholar.
4.
In 1887, while still in Scotland, Truby King was appointed resident surgeon at both the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
5.
Truby King began to realise that principles of nutrition applied across many disciplines.
6.
Truby King spent a winter in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War and returned with his dream clarified, having noticed how healthy infants were due to 12 to 18 months of breastfeeding.
7.
Truby King was appointed to represent New Zealand in 1913 at the Child Welfare Conference in London and was invited to assist in the establishment of a child public health service in Britain.
8.
In 1917 the former patron of the Plunket Society, Lady Victoria Plunket, wife of the former Governor of New Zealand, William Plunket, 5th Baron Plunket, invited Truby King to come to London to set up an infant welfare centre.
9.
Back in New Zealand, by 1921, Truby King became Director of Child Welfare in the Department of Health and by 1925 Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals.
10.
Truby King's work was recognised by the award of a CMG in 1917 and a knighthood in 1925.
11.
Truby King was the first private citizen in New Zealand to be given a state funeral.