Daphne Lorraine Gum MBE, OA (24 January 1916 – 28 February 2017) was an Australian pioneer in the care and education of children with cerebral palsy.
As a result of The Great Depression, and the death of Ruby in 1931, most of the family moved to the farming property at Pinnaroo, while Gum remained in Adelaide.
In February 1936, after graduation, Gum commenced in a single teacher position with a family at the Tapio Subsidised School, in the Broken Hill Inspectorate of the New South Wales Education Department.
Partly due to her late mother having had poliomyelitis (or infantile paralysis, as it was then known), Gum was interested in working with sick or disadvantaged children.
[2] In Adelaide, she returned to Woodlands Church of England Girls' Grammar School in residence, again taking charge of the Junior Boarding House in the evenings, while devoting her days to her new work.
In September 1966 Gum attended the Tenth World Congress of the International Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled in Wiesbaden, Germany; also touring facilities in other countries.
In the following year she was appointed to the school at Halis, New Ireland, New Guinea, where she worked with three New Guinean teachers and one trainee student in the village two miles away.
Around 1971, Gum was asked by Miss Ruth Watts, headmistress of the Methodist Ladies College, to take on a temporary position at the school.
From 1976, she pursued various interests including chess, sketching, the Methodist Ladies' College Old Scholar's Association committee (including a time as president during 1979–80), university lectures, a world tour and time spent in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador with her nephew, Geoff Renner, Director of World Vision in the Latin American Countries of Central and South America.
Gum became involved in the work of Marjorie Black House on King William Road, Unley, a voluntary organisation meeting place and support center for people with mental health issues.
[6] In 1960 Gum became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her work with children affected by cerebral palsy.