Background
Dendy was born in 1855 in Bryncelyn in North Wales. She was the daughter of John Dendy, Unitarian minister, and his wife Sarah Beard (1831–1922), eldest daughter of John Relly Beard.
Dendy was born in 1855 in Bryncelyn in North Wales. She was the daughter of John Dendy, Unitarian minister, and his wife Sarah Beard (1831–1922), eldest daughter of John Relly Beard.
Dendy was the driving force that established a colony for the "feeble-minded". She joined the Eugenics Education Society. Dendy became interested in the care of the "feeble-minded" in Manchester where she sat on the School Board from 1898.
She believed that these children needed to be housed in institutions after conducting a survey of Manchester school children.
She, aided by Doctor Henry Ashby, persuaded the board to open special schools for the "feeble-minded". She believed that these children were the result of alcohol and poverty and without the intervention of society then these weaknesses would be inherited by future generations.
In 1908 the Sandlebridge Boarding School or Sandlebridge Colony was opened by Incorporated Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble Minded. The schools were opened to residents who had been at Sandlebridge since 1902.
This society ran the homes until the local authority took over en route to becoming part of the National Health Service in 1945.
In 1933 the society had changed the name to the Mary Dendy Homes, and these came to be known as the Mary Dendy Hospital. Dendy was the driving force that established a colony for the "feeble-minded". She joined the Eugenics Education Society some time after 1900.
She argued that it should be legally possible to confine children who were "feeble-minded" and the Mental Deficiency Acting 1913 and the Elementary Education Acting 1914 enabled this to happen.
She argued that the only way to remove "this evil" was by preventing lieutenant By 1910 she was arguing that the worst danger was not the worst, but the mild cases of feeble-mindedness.
She foresaw that these people could hide their problems and by using this device they could transmit their problems to the children of society.
This charity had been started by members of the Manchester School Board starting in 1898.
