Christabel Burniston
| Christabel Burniston | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Sarah Elizabeth Christabel Hyde 12 September 1909 Leeds |
| Died | 27 October 2006 (aged 97) |
| Occupation | Teacher and adjudicator of speech and drama; English Speaking Board founder |
| Notable credit(s) | MBE for services to education (1978); fellowships of College of Preceptors and Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama |
Christabel Burniston MBE (12 September 1909 – 27 October 2006) founded the English Speaking Board (ESB). She was a pioneer in oral communication and the language arts, who championed the importance of spoken English as a vital life skill, describing it as enabling: "effective relationships with others, and insight into human relationships".
Born in Leeds, Sarah Elizabeth Christabel Hyde (the Christabel she later used as her first name was in honour of Christabel Pankhurst) was the youngest of four sisters. Her father, an insurance worker, came from an East Riding farming background. Her mother was a suffragette, anti-vivisectionist, a member of the Theosophical Society and a socialist. Burniston inherited both her mother's liberal ideals and breadth of vision about the value of education and enjoyed a carefree but disciplined upbringing, later described in her autobiography Life in a Liberty Bodice.
Burniston was educated at Chapel Allerton school and Leeds Institute of Education, where she gained a first-class Froebel teaching certificate and a speech and drama qualification. After qualifying, she taught at Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire for five years. After the war, she became County Drama Organiser for Lancashire, a role that saw her travelling around the north-west adjudicating at drama festivals and holding drama seminars, workshops and summer schools. During this time she also became a founder member of the Guild of Drama Adjudictors (GoDA). In 1950, after the collapse of her wartime marriage to Stanley Burniston, she moved to Southport with her young daughter Elizabeth and started the North-West School of Speech and Drama.
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