Tilly Aston - Fact Sheets - Resources (original) (raw)
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Tilly Aston (second from right) reading braille to four young girls in gardens, Melbourne, c1900s.
Tilly Aston as a young adult.
In September 1934 Tilly received a Jubilee Medal from King George V and two years later she received a Coronation Medal, also from the King. These medals (pictured) were awarded to Tilly for her service to people who are blind or vision impaired.
Early Years
Matilda Ann Aston, commonly known as Tilly, was born on 11 December 1873 at Carisbrook, Victoria and died in Melbourne on 1 November 1947.
The youngest of eight children, Tilly Aston was born with impaired vision and became totally blind just before her seventh birthday.
Her father died in 1881 and her mother worked as the local midwife to support the family. Six months later a breakthrough came in her life. Thomas James, an itinerant blind missionary, who traveled around the country helping people who were blind or vision impaired, arrived at the Astons and introduced Tilly to Braille.
Soon after, the choir of the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind (now part of Vision Australia) came to Carisbrook and the principal convinced Tilly's family to enroll her as a boarder at the school in St Kilda Road.
Tilly Aston attended the school from 1882 until she matriculated at the age of sixteen. She then began an Arts course at Melbourne University, but was forced to abandon her studies during the second year because the material she needed was not available in Braille.
Victorian Association of Braille Writers
Spurred on by her own difficulties and determined to help other people who were blind or vision impaired, Tilly Aston established the Victorian Association of Braille Writers (now Vision Australia) to provide Braille for all in 1894. The Association established training programmes for sighted volunteers to learn and transcribe Braille. To store and make accessible this material, Australia's first Braille library was established, still operating as the Vision Australia Library.
In the 1880's, people who were blind or vision impaired generally faced a life of dependence, isolation and poverty. Many of them were forced to beg for a living in what became an accepted sight in the streets of Melbourne.
Tilly realised that the provision of reading material was only one of a number of problems faced by the blindness community at that time. To address this she arranged a meeting on 8 December 1895 where the Association for the Advancement of the Blind (now part of Vision Australia) was formed.
The aim of the Association as stated in its Constitution was "the improvement of the blind in every possible way." Conditions of membership were blindness or partial blindness and members had to pay an entrance fee of one shilling and an annual subscription of one shilling. Tilly Aston was the first secretary of the association, serving for seven years. She later became the president, a position she held until her death in 1947.
Through her involvement Australians who were blind or vision impaired achieved improved rights, many of which were at the forefront of world change. An early achievement occurred in 1901 through the abolishment of a mandatory discriminatory bond of 400 pounds imposed on people who were blind or vision impaired for travelling interstate.
Voting Rights
In 1902 Australia's first voting rights for the blindness community were granted and the world's free postage was introduced for embossed material. 1910 saw the introduction of Australia's blind pension was granted and the introduction of free transport for people who were blind or vision impaired when accompanied by a guide.
In 1913, Tilly Aston applied for the Education Department post of head of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind school (now part of Vision Australia), the first woman who was blind to hold this position.
As a child, Tilly's parents encouraged her to develop an appreciation of beauty and nature, leaving her with many memories, which inspired her to take up writing. A writer of poetry and prose sketches, she published her first book, "Maiden Verses" in 1901.
In 1904 she won the Prahran City Councils competition for an original story. "The Woolinappers, or Some Tales from the By-Ways of Methodism" was published in 1905, followed by "Singable Songs" in 1924, "Songs of Light" in 1935, "Old Timers" in 1938, "The Inner Garden" in 1940 and "Memoirs of Tilly Aston" in 1946.
Her writings were also serialised in Victorian newspapers and for twelve years she edited and wrote for "A Book of Opals", a Braille magazine used in Chinese missionary schools.
Tilly Aston was awarded a Commonwealth grant in 1935 and twice received the Kings Medal for distinguished citizen service. She was also a keen exponent of Esperanto and corresponded with fellow linguists all over the world.
On leaving school, Tilly Aston lived with her family in Melbourne until 1913. She then moved to her own home in Windsor where she lived with a housekeeper-companion until her death.
Tilly's Legacy
In 1948 the Midlands Historical Society and school children of Carisbrook erected a memorial cairn in her honour. The Aston electorate in Melbourne was named after Miss Tilly Aston.
Today, Tilly's legacy lives on through the work of Vision Australia, which works in partnership with the blindness community to provide services for more than 41,000 Australians.
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This page last updated: 30 July 2007