Mary Greaves
Mary Elsworth Greaves MBE, OBE
(campaigner for the disabled)
Mary
Elsworth Greaves was born on 23 Apr 1907 at Newcastle on Tyne the
daughter of Joseph Elsworth Greaves and Mary Beatrice Heckels (the
daughter of Richard Alfred Heckels and Mary Jane Greenfield). She had a
remarkable life and became nationally known for her work for the
disabled.
The
family lived in Whitley Bay, Northumberland. As a child she contracted
polio when the family took a holiday in Belgium. On leaving school she
was so severely disabled that it was thought she would never be able to
gain employment. However she acquired a hand propelled invalid
tricycle, and was able to gain some freedom of mobility, becoming a
familiar figure around the town. She attended college and learned
shorthand and typing then obtained a job as a secretary to Whitley Bay
Council. She then set up her own shorthand and typing school in the
largest room in her parent’s house in Lish Avenue, the parental
bedroom. She worked hard and the school became successful but Mary felt
trapped by her fate.
In
1942, at the age of 35 Mary made the decision to take advantage of the
wartime lack of labour and try to get firstly qualifications and
secondly a job. She took a correspondence course in sociology with
Ruskin College and with the help of the head of Extra-Mural Studies at
Armstrong College in Newcastle she was offered positions at both Oxford
and Leicester. She chose Leicester because she could live with an old
school friend who was working there. She worked in an office
during the day and then travelled across town in her hand propelled
tricycle to study in the evenings, gaining an intermediate B.Sc. in
economics. To continue her education she needed to move to London and
was eventually able, in 1945, to get employment in the Ministry of
Works. She again studied part-time, at the London School of Economics,
gaining her degree in Sociology and Statistics.
She
worked as a civil servant until her retirement, when she was awarded
the MBE. Then she travelled the country investigating employment
opportunities for disabled people. The information she gathered became
the basis of her book “Work and Disability: Some Aspects of the
Employment of Disabled Persons in Great Britain” which was published in
1969 and became a standard reference work. In the same year Megan du
Boisson, the founder of the Disablement Income Group was killed in a
car crash. Mary took over the role of Director of the DIG and became
well known in both houses of Parliament for her campaigning on behalf
of the disabled. She was actively involved in assisting Alf
Morris’s private members bill pass through parliament to become The
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act in 1970. This resulted in the
provision of an income for disabled p[people through the social
security system and the introduction of what is now the Blue Badge
scheme. She later wrote that this was the single factor that created
wordwide awareness that disabled people are people, with same needs,
aspirations and problems as those without disabilities. She also worked
with Harold Wilson to ensure that the new Open University provided
facilities for disabled people. She was awarded the OBE for her
services to the disabled.
She
died on 16 Jan 1983 in London at the age of seventy five. Her obituary
was published in The Times, London. It concluded that she was "a woman
of courage and good sense, who disliked above all things a sentimental
approach to disability."
Sources
Obituary: Mary Greaves; The Times (London) 17 Jan 1983
Mary Greaves, Autobiography; (Unpublished document)