Christina Forbes

Christina Cameron (1857 - 1930) was born in Goulburn NSW in 1857. She was one of the earliest pupils of the Deaf and Dumb Institute when the school was in Pitt Street, Sydney. She was enrolled there in February 1866 at the age of 8, and her deaf brother Lachlan Cameron was also enrolled at the school in 1872 at the age of 9. The NSW Deaf Journal of December 1910 mentions that Christina was present to welcome Samuel Watson on his arrival at the Deaf and Dumb Institution as Superintendent in 1870. She later became a pupil teacher at the school and remained on the staff until her marriage to Peter Forbes in 1877. She became the Matron of the Deaf Society, a position she held till 1922 when her husband resigned as the Society's Superintendent and Secretary.

In the turbulent late 1920s, Christina allied herself with the large number of deaf people who left the Society for the newly formed NSW Association of Deaf and Dumb Citizens. She became a vice-president of this organisation not long before she died in Rockdale on 5 February 1930, at the age of 72.

Of interest is that Peter and Christina named their fourth son, born in 1886, as Samuel Watson, possibly after Christina’s teacher.