Bevé Hornsby
It is with very great sadness that we report the death of the founder
of the Hornsby International Dyslexia Centre, Bevé Hornsby, on
December 14 2004. Only the previous day, Bevé had attended a lunch
given by TouchType Read and Spell.
Despite reaching an age when such an event would have been expected,
Bevé was such a vital force that the news of her passing still came
as a tremendous surprise. As Iona Mackay, her long-time assistant
commented, Bevé started a whole new career at the age of 69, a time
when most of us are ready to take things easy.
David Alban, in his foreword to Beve's last published book Dyslexics I
have known, calls her "a bottomer", ie "someone driven by a need to
get to the bottom of things, whether practical or intellectual, an
indispensable quality in pioneering research. All Beve's early work
aimed at two things, to get to the bottom of dyslexia through an
empirical approach, analyzing it by how it affected people, and to
find out how far and by what methods dyslexics could be helped."
David Alban continues by describing Bevé as someone who "shapes up" -
a person possessing initiative, "who recognizes what needs to be done,
feels it's up to her either to do it or get it done, finds out the
best way to do it, organizes her energies, sets to work with zest and
feels restless until the job is done. The job in this case was nothing
less than to enlighten public opinion worldwide so that children
suffering from dyslexia could be recognized, to train remedial
teachers and, most difficult of all, to convert all existing teachers
to her point of view."
Bevé spent most of her time working to get dyslexia known and
accepted. The Hornsby Dyslexia Centre, which she established after
retiring from Barts, and its Hornsby Diploma and Distance Learning
Course are widely accepted as leaders in SpLD training. She was
awarded an MBE for her work in the field in 1997. In a presentation
ceremony at the University of London Institute of Education, Bevé was
awarded a Fellowship of the College of Preceptors, honoris causa,
awarded to persons eminent in education. In presenting her at the
ceremony, the public orator, Prof Donald Moyle, said "There can be no
question of the excellence of her work for children and teachers, just
as one is always impressed by her as a person".
I worked with Bevé for a decade. She was, at times, infuriating, but
she was also charming, glamorous, indomitable and, perhaps above all
else, inspiring. Dyslexics I Have Known carries the sub-title Reaching
for the Stars; Children and adults she assessed, teachers that she
trained, the Hornsby Dyslexia Centre and the Hornsby House School
which she also founded, those helped by her many publications -
notably Alpha to Omega (through its five editions) and her practical
guide Overcoming Dyslexia, the local dyslexia associations she helped
all have cause to give thanks for her life and mourn her leaving.
In
the summer of 2005 the London Borough of Bexley Local Education Authority
will again be sponsoring Touch-type Read and Spell Computer Courses for
Bexley children. Courses run from the
8th to 12th of August and 30th August to 1st September,
and over one hundred children are scheduled to attend each course. 
The main aim of the Pentonville Prison Dyslexia
Project was to offer dyslexic prisoners with poor literacy skills the
opportunity to improve their skills through participation in a computer
course. The Touch-type Read and Spell course is structured and delivers
its content through small incremental steps delivered in a multi-sensory
way with the opportunity to repeat modules. 
