Interview with Jill Mahler 

Born 7 July 1938

 

Educated Tenterden School; Hurst Green, Surrey; Lillesden School; Trinity College, Dublin; Swansea University; Haifa University; Bristol University; University College, London; Surrey University

 

Jill was born with cerebral palsy, the first of two children, and lived near London. No Grandparents. At age 4½, went to a local mainstream, private “Dame” school. Aged 8½, Jill went to a boarding school for children with speech problems. School created by Mrs Hudson-Smith in Hurst Green, Surrey. Jill was in a class of 12 (10 boys, 2 girls). Playing football and climbing trees. Speech therapy. Mother’s fight for LEA support for boarding school fees in Kent. Education Act. Bullying. School matron’s attitude. Problems with maths. O-levels and A-levels. Vocational advice to be a librarian or social worker. Jill wanted to be a doctor. Her hero was American Dr Carlson, who had cp. Trinity College, Dublin to study social work. Jill had a placement in a hospital and in a school for children with cerebral palsy. The Institute of Almoners. Occupational Therapy. Became a social worker in County Fermanagh in rural Northern Ireland dealing with delinquency, adoption, fostering. Boat trips. Local hospital was the old workhouse. Means test paperwork. Bridges were sometimes blown up. Jill’s colleagues including a former policeman and a relieving officer. Jill was born in Croydon in wartime. Evacuated to Grandmother’s house in Plymouth. Jill’s father was in ARP in London fighting incendiary fires. Moved back to Croydon, after her grandmother’s house in Plymouth was bombed, killing her grandmother. Jill’s sister was born when Jill was about 4 ½. Jill remembers being looked after by an aunt when her mother was in hospital. Aunt disliked Jill because she was “not normal”. Jill’s love of horses. Father spoilt her. Diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Great Ormond Street Hospital for removal of tonsils aged 5. Jill’s swallowing difficulty and speech impairment. Mother’s memory of Jill’s birth.

Jill came back from Israel to the UK in 1985. Acknowledgement of disability. Jill’s relationship with her sister.

 

Housemistress and headmistress influence on Jill. Jill became a Queen’s Guide at 16. Went to London for a presentation by the Chief Guide, Lady Baden-Powell. First school was a small local private school, run by a mother and daughter. Using slates to write on. Jill used to walk the 20 minutes to school on her own. Disability not talked about at home. Playing with other children. Fairy Cycle. At GCE Jill was given 20 minutes extra for each exam.

7 O-levels and two A-levels. Qualification in social work. Social work in County Fermanagh and then worked for Wiltshire Social Services. Post-graduate year in social work. Went to Swansea to read ‘Child Care’. Worked for a few months in Glamorgan before moving on to Monmouthshire, working for Social Services. Fostering. Became Adoptions Officer. Went to Israel for 3 weeks’ work on a Kibbutz, picking oranges. Stayed 3 months and met her husband-to-be. Returned to the UK in 1985. Jill got involved with disability rights movement, WEBCODP. Tim Yeo, Bill Hargreaves and the Spastics Society. Jill’s mother did collections for the Spastics Society. Jill had three children, who have all travelled. Eldest son lived in Holland and Brazil. Other son Adam spent a year in the UK, including work with disabled people.

 

Family surname Partridge, a good Devon name. All her grandparents died young. Mrs Hudson Smith (pioneer in field of speech therapy) started a boarding school. Jill one of the first of 7 pupils. Stayed 18 months. Left when no more improvement in speech. Boarding school near Hawkhurst in Kent. Took History and English ‘A’ Levels. Difficulty with writing. Wanted to be a doctor – not possible. Failed to become almoner; became social worker. Trained in Republic of Ireland. Practical placement in St Vincent’s Hospital, supervision by nuns. Worked in voluntary school for children with CP. Trinity College, Dublin. Post-graduate at Swansea. One year at Haifa University. Masters in Social Administration at Bristol University. Studied ergonomics at University College, London. Worked night-shift in social services. Ergonomics at Surrey University. Fitting equipment to the person, not person to equipment. Course on Access. 1985 Bristol. Disability movement strong. Became more militant and aware of her rights.

 

Social worker in her early twenties in rural area of NW Ireland. Very sectarian. “Didn’t kick with either foot”, an expression meaning she was neither Catholic nor Protestant. Schools were segregated. Crossing the border. Walking, boating. WEA classes in car maintenance and woodwork. Five and a half years in Ireland. Spent six months in Wiltshire. Seconded to Swansea University for post graduate. Colleague proposed marriage. Practical placement in Glamorgan, then Monmouthshire for three years. Went to kibbutz for three weeks; stayed three months, turning down a job at Abergavenny Hospital. Worked in orange and grapefruit groves six hours per day. Got to know Peter who was in charge of volunteers. He travelled back to England to propose. Jill went back with him and lived together in kibbutz. No civil marriages in Israel. After overcoming many difficulties, she converted, mainly for the sake of any children. Married in kibbutz one month after son Joel was born. Before this, Peter had to do one month’s National Service on Lebanese border. Frightening for Jill. He returned just one day before Joel was born. Inside kibbutz, no problem with disability; outside, lots of superstition. Adam was born 22 months after Joel. Babies went into the children’s home and grew up in that group until 18. Came back to the parents for tea or comforted by mother in the children’s home if they cried at night. Jill decided not to do this with Adam. He slept at home for one year. Caused problems and the kibbutz secretary threatened the family with expulsion. In the children’s home Adam became hysterical every time he hurt himself. Discovered he had been told that Jill had been ill and this had left her disabled. He was afraid the same thing would happen to him.

 

Going to Great Ormond Street for physiotherapy at two. Father Reginald’s family was Partridges from Devon. Mother’s family was Lederer, originally coming from Czechoslovakia. Tenterden School. Lack of awareness of disability. Could read before going to school. Interested in medicine, biology and anatomy. Vocational guidance counsellor recommended either librarianship or social work. Jill chose social work. Studying in Dublin. Jill taught to drive by her father and passed her test at 17. Living in a Kibbutz. People of Eastern European origin regarded disability as bad luck. Being a disabled parent. All of Jill’s family are in Israel, though they have all now left the Kibbutz. Eldest son worked in Brazil. Adam lived in Southern Africa, and in England. Youngest son qualified as a physiotherapist.

 

First 13 months in the Kibbutz were stressful. Jill’s first son was born in 1971. Heat and physical conditions in Kibbutz. The Babies’ House, where children went from hospital. Jill was determined that her second son, Adam, born 22 months later, was going to sleep at home, which he did until a year old. Children reared in groups of six. Teenagers lived without adults in group houses and left for army at 18 or 19 for three years. Accepted by a school of social work in New York but funding refused by Treasurer of Kibbutz, even though Jill had secured half-funding from English-Jewish Council. Part-time masters degree in Bristol.