Mary S.Corbishley MBE 1905-1995
Mill Hall Oral School for the Deaf, Cuckfield, Sussex
by
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“She bravely walked out of the security of her employment at Dene Hollow into the cold and heavy snow-covered country, thinking to herself: “That’s the end of teaching the deaf as I have no qualifications.” She mentally avowed her faith in God: “Thy Will be done … Show me thy Will, please.” For the next two days in brilliant sunshine she was all alone, walking alone, being confronted with never-ending questions of what to do with herself in the future. Looking back on this significant phase of her long career of teaching deaf children, she remarked in her autobiography: “What seemed to be the end, was the beginning.” (pp. 38-39)”
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About the Book
Mary Corbishley pioneered an unorthodox method of teaching young deaf children speech, lipreading and English from an early age for higher education, colleges, universities and after-school life in the hearing world. A devout Christian, she ran her school on the basis of her Bible and her faith in her God. In 1939 she courageously set up her School in the face of scepticism, prejudice, bias and officialdom and triumphed in awakening the realisation that it was - and is - not impossible for deaf children to learn to speak, lipread and understand spoken English. Her beloved Mill Hall Oral School with its world-wide reputation ran for nearly 50 years until its politically-enforced closure in 1996. Her life revolved around deaf children whom she loved all her life.
About the Author
About the Author
Ian M. Stewart, born in September 1935 and later diagnosed profoundly deaf, started his formal education on his seventh birthday at Cuckfield House Oral School in Cuckfield, Sussex. He learnt speech, lip-reading and English and in 1946 successfully entered Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf in Burgess Hill, Sussex and obtained six Oxford GCE ‘O’ level passes. A qualified chartered quantity surveyor since 1963, he suffered enforced early retirement due to the recession in 1992. He then became a qualified teacher in Further & Adult Education and has been teaching deaf adults English for Work. A leading mime-actor with the British Theatre of the Deaf in the 1960-70s, he lectured on Deaf Sign Theatre as part of the Theatre Arts, Education and Deaf Studies BA (Hons) Degree Course at Reading University in the early 1990s. He now lives by the sea in Sussex and enjoys theatre, films, art, reading, history, travelling, swimming, bracing walks, home cuisine and dining and wining with friends. He hopes to tour the beautiful green countryside of the British Isles before its future relentless and ruinous urbanisation.