Thank you to Mary Beaumont for these early childhood memories. Mary has been a lifelong disability activist, organiser and campaigner in the Bedworth and Nuneaton area of Warwickshire and for many years has given leadership to the development of Nuneaton and Bedworth DIAL and the New Ramsden Centre in Nuneaton. Mary has also been a local Councillor and a key spokesperson on access and disability issues in Warwickshire.
Mary's childhood memories give us an idea of the sense of isolation and medicalization that many disabled children faced back in the 1940s:
When I was born in 1940 it was discovered that I had a dislocated elbow, as I grew up this was put in a splint and I was visiting an orthopaedic clinic, they became concerned that at the age of two I was not walking and further examination revealed that I was also born with dislocated hips.
After several months of regular visits to orthopaedic clinics, I was admitted to Paybody Orthopaedic Hospital in Allesley, Coventry. Initially too young to understand what was happening, the normal treatment was to put patients in plaster in what was termed a "frog plaster", that’s because my legs were positioned outwards with knees bent in order for my hips to remain in their correct position. I am not aware of the timescale of how long I was in this position.
After a few years, I was able to walk with a limp, discharged from hospital wearing callipers on both legs in order to try to ensure that the hips would be kept in the correct position.
Visits to hospital and clinic continued, things did not improve in 1951, aged eleven I was re-admitted to Hospital and this time I was aware of what was happening, I remember quite clearly being extremely upset, I remember my Father, not a demonstrative man, crying as he left me in the ward.
For the next two days, it was a frightening experience as I was in a ward on my own, things began to settle down when I was moved to the girl’s ward, where I could talk to the other patients who were a mixed age group.
Visiting times once a week for an hour on Sunday, I have a younger brother who was not able to visit as no one under the age of sixteen was allowed to visit so for the next two to three years I had no contact with him at all.
We had school lessons, received from BBC Schools Broadcast, a school Teacher Miss Craven I remember her very well, lessons in English, Arithmetic, History & Geography - we also had exams at the end of term and I remember coming top in the class (once) - I've still got the report.
We also had some fun times once various local charities in Coventry, I think the Rotary was one, used to put on film shows for us on Saturday nights, we received gifts, toys, books and games. On Christmas day the Orthopaedic consultant used to visit and carve the turkey so that we could have a Christmas dinner and we all received a Christmas present from the hospital.
In 1953 it was the year of the Coronation a small nine inch screen television had been donated to us, I remember we all made paper decorations for the ward and watched the Coronation on the television.
Later in the year we had an exciting adventure, a trip was arranged for us to attend the film A Queen is Crowned at a local Cinema, with the help of volunteers we were taken in a bus to see the film. I remember the bus journey so clearly looking out of the window and marvelling at the houses, shops and buildings that we passed on our journey, it seemed like another world.
Another event that springs to mind and I am not sure about the date, the pantomime Cinderella was staged at Coventry Hippodrome. The stars of the show visited us in hospital, Norman Wisdom played Buttons and Julie Andrews played Cinderella. What an exciting visit that was with Norman doing his funny walk down the ward.
Over the next few years I had several operations and after each one had to remain in plaster and stay in bed for three months at a time, after many months of physiotherapy I was able to get up and walk with crutches.
Eventually after what seemed like a lifetime between 1954 and 1955 (can not be precise) it was time for me to go home, this in itself was a momentous occasion, everything at home was so different, I sometimes felt alone, having been in a ward of some twenty children for many years this was a new scenario, having a bedroom of my own was another strange thing to get used to and our house seemed very small.
I then attended a special school until I left at the end of 1956. I had to travel by bus every day, so did not have an opportunity to make friends locally all my school friends lived in other areas. As I got older frustration set in and I felt I had had enough of disability, people making decisions for me, not having any of the opportunities other teenagers had.
Some time later I finally managed to get a job after attending about eight interviews and my life thankfully went in a different direction, I threw off the mantle of disability and just wanted to go my own way which I did, but that is another story.
Mary Catherine Beaumont (nee Davies)
Mary's childhood memories give us an idea of the sense of isolation and medicalization that many disabled children faced back in the 1940s:
When I was born in 1940 it was discovered that I had a dislocated elbow, as I grew up this was put in a splint and I was visiting an orthopaedic clinic, they became concerned that at the age of two I was not walking and further examination revealed that I was also born with dislocated hips.
After several months of regular visits to orthopaedic clinics, I was admitted to Paybody Orthopaedic Hospital in Allesley, Coventry. Initially too young to understand what was happening, the normal treatment was to put patients in plaster in what was termed a "frog plaster", that’s because my legs were positioned outwards with knees bent in order for my hips to remain in their correct position. I am not aware of the timescale of how long I was in this position.
After a few years, I was able to walk with a limp, discharged from hospital wearing callipers on both legs in order to try to ensure that the hips would be kept in the correct position.
Visits to hospital and clinic continued, things did not improve in 1951, aged eleven I was re-admitted to Hospital and this time I was aware of what was happening, I remember quite clearly being extremely upset, I remember my Father, not a demonstrative man, crying as he left me in the ward.
For the next two days, it was a frightening experience as I was in a ward on my own, things began to settle down when I was moved to the girl’s ward, where I could talk to the other patients who were a mixed age group.
Visiting times once a week for an hour on Sunday, I have a younger brother who was not able to visit as no one under the age of sixteen was allowed to visit so for the next two to three years I had no contact with him at all.
We had school lessons, received from BBC Schools Broadcast, a school Teacher Miss Craven I remember her very well, lessons in English, Arithmetic, History & Geography - we also had exams at the end of term and I remember coming top in the class (once) - I've still got the report.
We also had some fun times once various local charities in Coventry, I think the Rotary was one, used to put on film shows for us on Saturday nights, we received gifts, toys, books and games. On Christmas day the Orthopaedic consultant used to visit and carve the turkey so that we could have a Christmas dinner and we all received a Christmas present from the hospital.
In 1953 it was the year of the Coronation a small nine inch screen television had been donated to us, I remember we all made paper decorations for the ward and watched the Coronation on the television.
Later in the year we had an exciting adventure, a trip was arranged for us to attend the film A Queen is Crowned at a local Cinema, with the help of volunteers we were taken in a bus to see the film. I remember the bus journey so clearly looking out of the window and marvelling at the houses, shops and buildings that we passed on our journey, it seemed like another world.
Another event that springs to mind and I am not sure about the date, the pantomime Cinderella was staged at Coventry Hippodrome. The stars of the show visited us in hospital, Norman Wisdom played Buttons and Julie Andrews played Cinderella. What an exciting visit that was with Norman doing his funny walk down the ward.
Over the next few years I had several operations and after each one had to remain in plaster and stay in bed for three months at a time, after many months of physiotherapy I was able to get up and walk with crutches.
Eventually after what seemed like a lifetime between 1954 and 1955 (can not be precise) it was time for me to go home, this in itself was a momentous occasion, everything at home was so different, I sometimes felt alone, having been in a ward of some twenty children for many years this was a new scenario, having a bedroom of my own was another strange thing to get used to and our house seemed very small.
I then attended a special school until I left at the end of 1956. I had to travel by bus every day, so did not have an opportunity to make friends locally all my school friends lived in other areas. As I got older frustration set in and I felt I had had enough of disability, people making decisions for me, not having any of the opportunities other teenagers had.
Some time later I finally managed to get a job after attending about eight interviews and my life thankfully went in a different direction, I threw off the mantle of disability and just wanted to go my own way which I did, but that is another story.
Mary Catherine Beaumont (nee Davies)
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