Mary Stephens Corbishley MBE

This biography is about Mary S. Corbishley who pioneered an unorthodox method of teaching young deaf children speech, lipreading and English. She believed that these three fundamental elements formed an ideal beginning of preparing deaf children from an early age for higher education and after-school life in the hearing world where they had equal rights with hearing peers. She was a devout Christian woman whose calling for this enterprising adventure was inspired by the Bible and her faith in God. As a young woman in 1929, she unexpectedly left home and embarked on a long journey which was to last for the rest of her life and career as a teacher of young deaf children. Having courageously set up her Oral School for deaf children in 1939, she tirelessly fought against ignorance, officialdom, scepticism and prejudice and triumphed in establishing a well-loved and highly praised School at Mill Hall in Cuckfield in 1948 which was to enjoy fame and a world-wide reputation for 50 years until its much lamented closure in 1996. Her work revolved around deaf children whom she loved all her life.