Printed from https://fyi.org.nz/request/6461-lady-lydia-davis on April 26, 2024 12:24

Lady Lydia Davis

David Ritchie made this Official Information request to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

The request was successful.

From: David Ritchie

Kia ora Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

Is Lady Lydia Davis entitled to use her title? She was the first wife of Sir Thomas "Tom" Davis, awarded the KBE by New Zealand in the 1981 New Years Honours, for services to medicine and the people of the Cook Islands, but I note their marriage had dissolved by this point and he had since married Pa Tepaeru Terito Ariki in 1979. Is Lady Lydia somehow entitled to use this title as she does on her website (http://www.nourishingbasics.com/Bio.html) - you'll no doubt notice this biography verifies her marriage to Sir Tom so there can be no doubt this is the same person.

Many thanks,

David Ritchie

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Dear David Ritchie

Thank you for your email of 22 August 2017 (copied below). This email is to acknowledge the receipt of your request by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) and to confirm that we are treating your request as a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982.

Kind regards

Ministerial Coordinator
Office of the Chief Executive

The information contained in this email message is for the attention of the intended recipient only and is not necessarily the official view or communication of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, copy or distribute this message or the information in it. If you have received this message in error, please destroy the email and notify the sender immediately.
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From: Louise Beard [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

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[UNCLASSIFIED]

 

 

 

Dear Mr Ritchie

 

In response to your request for information, I attach a letter from
Michael Webster, Clerk of the Executive Council.

 

 

Regards

 

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01CED718.F89D2C00 Louise Beard

  Executive Assistant to the
Secretary of the Cabinet and
Clerk of the Executive
Council

Cabinet Office

Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet

 

[2][email address]

DDI:      (04) 817 9749

 

 

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From: David Ritchie

Dear Louise Beard [DPMC],

Thanks for the quick response. Please pass on my thanks to Rachel Hayward.

Yours sincerely,

David Ritchie

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Jason Brown left an annotation ()

. . .

In fact the marriage to Carla Cassata came well after that of Pa Ariki, not the other way around.

There is some suggestion that the pair separated ten months before the death of Sir Thomas Davis, see:
http://www.spasifikmag.com/cookislandlan...

However I do not recall there being any talk of divorce, so I am uncertain as to how that would affect her claim to being Lady Davis.

I was a resident for 29 years in the Cook Islands and knew Sir Thomas personally - Lady Davis not so much.

. . .

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