OBITUARIES
the younger headmagisterial children enthusiastically adopting Mary as an extra, honorary grandmother. Mary had in abundance all the homely skills and sympathetic warmth that this new task required, but that sharp Girtonian brain had perhaps not yet found its fulfilment. That was to happen in the 1970s. Puzzled by her son Bill’s unaccountable difficulties with spelling, Mary began to study the emerging research into dyslexia or ‘word blindness’. Now widely acknowledged as a genuine disability, dyslexia was then viewed with a certain suspicion in some educational quarters and as an excuse for laziness. Mary’s pioneering work in this field, both as a teacher and as a lecturer, gradually helped encourage the sceptics to take the affliction seriously. She worked tirelessly to remove the confusing veil from her pupils’ eyes, creating her own teaching aids and games so that making sense of the bewildering symbols on the page became less of a terrifying ordeal. I remember a boy in my House being given by Mary a pair of the then new, experimental tinted spectacles to wear as he read. “Goodness!” he said delightedly. “The letters have stopped jumping about.” Mary went on to teach dyslexic children not only at King’s but also at Bruton School for Girls, Sherborne School for Girls, Leweston and Hazlegrove. There were numerous private pupils too who benefited from Mary’s patience and exhaustive research, their lives transformed by her skill in teaching them to read without fear. Needless to say, every lesson in Threeways would have ended with tea and delicious cake.
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No tribute to Mary would be complete without some mention of her love of plants and flowers. The enormous garden at Threeways was her constant joy, and even latterly in Sexey’s Hospital, there were the herb garden to nurture and the cluster of small pots outside Mary’s front door, brimming with colour against the ancient stonework. Inside there would always be at least two beautiful arrangements of flowers, all part of the bright welcome that invariably awaited you. The current book would be laid aside, a small table set up and good things to eat and drink produced in a trice. Mary was something of a magician when it came to entertaining. I last saw Mary on her 97th birthday. I’m not sure that she knew exactly who I was, but tea, cake and conversation were dispensed with customary aplomb, and I left her surrounded by flowers (of course) and birthday cards full of the loving good wishes of her devoted family and friends. It’s a happy final vision to have of a clever, loving, gracious and most accomplished lady. David Hindley [Mary’s funeral took place in Bruton Parish Church on Monday, August 3rd, 2015. The church was filled to capacity with Mary’s family, friends, Old Brutonians and at least three Old Girtonians of whom one was Mary’s daughter, Sue. The service was conducted by the Rector of Bruton and by Bishop Neville Chamberlain. The organ was played by David Slater with the stirring “Crown Imperial” by William Walton at the conclusion. David Hindley sang a setting of the Nunc Dimittis by George Dyson, one that had featured often in the past at the School’s services of Sunday evensong.]
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