Personal and Biographical

Diaries. The diaries cover the period from Stella Mason's childhood as the daughter of a progressive Headmaster at Buxton College, her early interest in drama, her enrolment at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London in 1938, her increasing interest and specialisation in speech therapy whilst at the School and the early days of her professional practice at first in Yorkshire and then in the Midlands in the late 1940s and 1950s. Mason originally trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (one of the first UK institutions to offer courses in speech therapy) under the legendary founder of the school Elsie Fogerty (1865-1945). The diaries reference Mason and Fogerty's relationship, as well as her experience of lecturers including Joan van Thal and Clifford Turner.

1930-1958

22 items