User:Arb/Vera MacLeavy

Vera Alice MacLeavy (née Black) (25 September 1919 – 20 July 2008 ) was librarian of Bethlehem Teacher Training College in Malvern, Jamaica from 1954 to 1972 and archivist of the Moravian Church in Jamaica from 1957 to 1986.

Early life
Mrs MacLeavy was born in Redcar, Yorkshire, England. After graduating from the University of Leeds in 1943, she was an assistant teacher at Fulneck Boys' School where she was one of the first two female teachers on an otherwise all male teaching staff. In 1945 she married the Rev. Basil LaTrobe MacLeavy.

In 1947, after a nine month separation due to the war, she travelled to Jamaica to join her husband who had taken up the post of Principal at the Bethlehem Teacher Training College. Here they had three sons.

Major work
As librarian, she saw to the development of the Bethlehem Teacher Training College library's collection from its inception in 1954. Through her connections with the Moravian Church she was able to attract generous gifts of books and other resources from England and the USA.

As archivist she toured the island collecting church records no longer in use, catalogued them and arranged for conservation where required. The archives were originally housed on the ground floor of the Bethlehem Teacher Training College library but were transferred to the Jamaica Archives in Spanish Town in 1972 upon the retirement of Mrs. MacLeavy from Bethlehem. However, she continued as archivist until 1986 when she returned to the UK with her husband to retire in Leominster near Bristol.

Other work
During her thirty nine years in Jamaica, Mrs MacLeavy taught at both Bethlehem Teacher Training College and the nearby Hampton Girls’ School. She was also very active in both the Moravian Women’s Fellowship and the Upward and Onward Society for girls.