Molly Mason 1900 - 1985

Mary Mason, Molly as she was universally known, died last summer in a nursing home in Winchester.

She was brought up in North London and qualified as a teacher at the National Froebal Institute. Her first teaching posts were in Paddington and Kennington and as a result of her observations as a teacher during the late 1920s, she became interested in the environmental influences, both social and human, on her pupils. She moved from teaching to social work, first taking the Certificate in Social Science and shortly after the Certificate in Mental Health, both at the London School of Economics. She was fortunate to be on the staff of the London Child Guidance Clinic in the pre-war period when that institution was pioneering the role and function of ‘child guidance’ in the United Kingdom. While at the London Child Guidance Clinic she worked alongside colleagues who were to become acknowledged leaders in the field, such as John Bowlby and Michael Fordham. In later years she delighted in regaling younger colleagues with anecdotal reminiscences of these ‘giants’.

In 1939 Molly moved to Cape Town to become head of the first Training College for Nursery School Education to be established in South Africa. The College offered training to Europeans and non-Europeans, and for a time in addition to the academic work she was responsible for the Students’ Hostel.

During her time in Cape Town Molly met and married Captain Miles Mason and they returned to England together in 1950. His death in the 1960s affected her deeply.

Her first post on her return was as Tutor in charge of a course for house parents run at the Polytechnic of North London under the auspices of the Home Office. Molly's contact with the Home Office which began at that time was to last for many years and she was frequently called on to lecture at Home Office Refresher Courses for residential workers with children, for late entrants to the Probation Service, and so on.

She was one of the early students accepted to train at