Generous gift to benefit medical research at Christchurch campus

A substantial gift from Canterbury farmer James Hobson Smedley has opened up exciting new opportunities for early and mid-career researchers at the University of Otago, Christchurch.

The $2.9m donation from Mr Smedley was the largest gift received by the University of Otago Foundation Trust in 2023. The James H Smedley Charitable Trust Deed requests that the funds are to be used for “medical research for specific purposes undertaken by graduates or undergraduates at the Christchurch Clinical School of Medicine at the University of Otago”.

The first scholarship to be initiated through the gift will be awarded in 2024, to support research undertaken in 2025.

University of Otago, Christchurch Dean and Head of Campus, Professor Suzanne Pitama, expressed gratitude for the generosity of Mr Smedley to support medical research.

Professor Pitama says the funds will support the sustainability of the emerging health research workforce, back innovative clinical research within the Canterbury region and build opportunities for research mentorship.

“This gift signposts the social accountability expected by the Christchurch community of our school. We are keen to exceed the expectations that Mr Smedley dreamed of as he considered this specific donation,” she says.

Otago’s Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Shelagh Murray, says this is a “wonderful bequest that will make a huge difference in supporting medical research undertaken by graduates or undergraduates at the University of Otago, Christchurch”.

“Discussions with the Christchurch Dean will help decide on the best use of this bequest for the future.”

Born in 1918 in the Waikato, James Smedley was the only boy in a family of five children.  His father worked as a farm manager in the Raglan area. As a young boy, he moved with his family to Canterbury, where his father worked as a carpenter and later established a bakery business, before returning to farming.

After initially working as a baker, from the 1950s Mr Smedley farmed in the Bromley area and from the late 1980s in the Marshland Road area. He died in 2016, aged 98.

Through his charitable trust, Mr Smedley left substantial gifts to the Christchurch Clinical Medical School, the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and the University of Canterbury’s Faculty of Fine Arts.