Mary Greaves

Mary Greaves (23 April 1907 – 16 January 1983) was a British civil servant and disability rights campaigner, who was instrumental in helping to pass the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

Early life and career Mary Elsworth Greaves was born on 23 April 1907 at 83 Falmouth Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Joseph Elsworth Greaves and Mary Beatrice Heckels.

As a child, Greaves contracted polio, which left her severely disabled.

Campaigning Upon her retirement from the civil service, Greaves "travelled about the country investigating employment opportunities for disabled people" (The Times). Reviewing it for The British Medical Journal, C.B. Wynn Parry wrote:Following the death of Megan du Boisson, co-founder of the Disablement Income Group with Berit Moore, Greaves took on the role of director of the DIG. She became known as a leading activist "in campaigns around employment, disability incomes, and mobility issues", "I don't want to sit at home having everyone be nice to me," she said in a 1973 interview. "I'd rather go out and do things and have people being nasty to me if they feel so inclined, and then I'll fight back." She died on 16 January 1983 in a London hospital, aged 75. Her obituary, published in The Times, remembered her as "a woman of courage and good sense, who disliked above all things a sentimental approach to disability."