Widd, Thomas

Born at Duffield, Yorkshire, England; godson of Charles Dickens; deaf from scarlet fever at age 4. Educated at the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Doncaster for only 18 months. On leaving school, went to work in a sawmill, rising to engineer of the mill until the Yorkshire Institution offered him a position as teacher and printer, 1859-1862. A few years later, established associations for the deaf throughout England. In 1864, married Margaret Fitzakerly, also deaf. Moved to Canada in 1867, setting in Montreal and publishing the Montreal Daily Witness. Asked to start a school for Protestant deaf in Quebec, he established the Protestant Institution for Deaf-Mutes and the Blind, which later became the Mackay Institution for the deaf at Montreal and served as its principal, 1870-1883, with his wife as matron and assistant teacher. Forced by health problems to move to southern California in 1883, he took up mission work for the deaf in that area in 1889, becoming a lay reader and holding regular services at St. Paul's Cathedral in Los Angeles; died in Los Angeles. A book-length biography is The Life and Writings of Thomas Widd.