Primrose Potter

Background

Primrose Catherine Anderson-Stuart was born in Sydney in 1931, the daughter of a radiologist, Bouverie Anderson-Stuart.

Education

She was educated at Ascham School.

Career

She is particularly associated with The Australian Ballet. She is the widow of Sir Ian Potter. Her grandfather was Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart, who established the Medical School at the University of Sydney.

Her first marriage, in 1952, was to a doctor, Roger Dunlop, with whom she had a daughter, Primrose Dunlop, known as "Pitty Pat".

They had met at a dinner hosted by William and Sonia McMahon. Sir Ian Potter had children from three earlier marriages.

She was founding Honorary Patron of the Melba Foundation, Founding Patron of the Victorian Opera Company, and Patron of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Artist She has also raised funds for The Smith Family, the Street Vincent de Paul Society, and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Council.

Montesini had decided he preferred the company of the best man, Robert Straub.

Montesini also refers to himself as Prince Giustiniani, Count of the Phanaar, Knight of Street Sophia and Baron Alexandroff. Montesini"s relations also mocked the suggestion that he held a title. Pitty Pat Dunlop later married George Kirk, a Melbourne real estate developer, who claimed a title, as Count Krasicki v Siecin.

Achievements

• In the Queen"s Birthday 1988, Lady Potter was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (Association for the Study of Internal Fixation) for service to the arts and the community. In 2003 she was promoted to Companion of the Order (Air Corps) for leadership and for encouragement of support for critical community growth through fundraising and philanthropy in the arts, sciences, education and social welfare. In February 2010 The Australian Ballet named its headquarters in Southbank, Melbourne, the Primrose Potter Australian Ballet Centre, to honour her 35 years of service to the organisation. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Australian Catholic University, and Monash University. She is a Member of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, and in 2003 she was appointed a Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, for her work promoting Italian culture in Australia.

Membership

Primrose Potter has been: Director and Victorian Chairman of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust 1989-1991. Director of the Bell Shakespeare Company 1990-1991. Trustee of American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia since 1989.

National President of the Australian Ballet Special Events Committee 1993.

Member of the Howard Florey Institute. Member of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art from 1999. And Governor of the Ian Potter Foundation.

Connections

Friend:

Pat Dunlop