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Our readers will have heard with regret of the death on the 9th May of Miss Dendy, President and Foundress of the Incorporated Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble-Minded and Chairman of its Governing Body.
As a member of the Manchester Education Authority, 1896-1914, her particular attention was early drawn to the problem of mentally defective children of school age, none of whom were receiving any teaching or training suitable to their condition, and it was her influence which led to the adoption in Manchester of the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899, and to the establishment of special schools for such children.
Miss Dendy was convinced that the work done in these schools would, in the absence of institutions for permanent care, be largely wasted by the dis- charge of the children at 16 years of age, to become in the great majority of cases a cost and a menace to the community. She was supported in this view by high medical opinion and by many influential men in Manchester and elsewhere. Her scheme was submitted to a public meeting held in Manchester, under the presidency of the then Dean of Manchester, where the late Sir William Houldsworth pointed out that the great aim of the scheme was to prevent evil in the future. The scheme was adopted and the Society founded, of which Miss Dendy became President in later years. A Committee was appointed with Miss Dendy as Hon. Secretary and its first object was to gather and spread knowledge concerning the condition of the feeble-minded, and to raise money with a view to establishing a home for children whereby the scheme of perman- ent care could be effectively demonstrated. As a result of Miss Dendy’s appeals to the generosity of the public the Committee was able by 1902 to report the building of a residential home having day school provision under the Regulations of the Board of Education, with 20 children in residence; and there was every reason to be satisfied with the result of the experiment. In the meantime Miss Dendy had been active in the Society’s propaganda work of exciting public interest in the whole question of adequate care and provision for feeble-minded people, and an influential petition to the Home Secretary in 1903 resulted in the appointment of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded in the following year. Miss Dendy was one of the first witnesses called. She was able to point to the Society’s provision which by this time had been extended to accommodate 160 children, as a practical example of what was needed, and the Royal Commission itself spoke of it in the Report as ” the most complete experiment for providing perman- ently for the feeble-minded.” As a result of the Report of the Royal Com- mission the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 was passed. Following representa- tion to the Government by the Manchester City Council, and by representatives of the Trade Councils, and many influential citizens, Miss Dendy was invited to accept office as one of His Majesty’s Commissioners appointed to administer the Act, and was the first woman Commissioner to be appointed.
In 1910 Miss Dendy was presented to the Manchester University for the honorary degree of Master of Arts and it was conferred upon her with the gracious acknowledgment that she had ” made visible one of the most danger- ous blots on our present civilisation and had proved that it can be remedied,” and that she ” possessed a tenderness and humanity of conscience which counts unrelieved suffering which human effort can remove not merely as a pain but as a wrong and as a wrong that must be righted.”
The Presidency of the Society being vacant on Miss Dendy’s retirement from the Board of Control under the age limit, she was unanimously elected to the office and, declining all other public interests, announced her intention of devoting the remainder of her life to the welfare of her people at Sandle- bridge. Under her care the small provision for 20 children in 1902 has grown into a self-contained colony of 425 persons, boys, girls and adults; with all the necessary equipment of Day School, Hospital, Workshops, Recreation Room, and more than 200 acres of land. It was resolved at the recent Annual Meeting that in the future the Institution should be called ” The Mary Dendy Home, Sandlebridge.”
Miss Dendy’s friends count her happy in her going. She died full of years and of honour, with a life’s work which will endure, and leaving a memory affectionately cherished for qualities of heart and mind which evoked the quick response of love and ready service from all who worked with her. MARION BROOKS.
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