Applebey was born in
Mortlake in 1916. She was educated in Oxford, graduating in languages at
St. Annes College. By then she had met her lifelong partner Edith Agnes (Ad) Leathart. She was fluent in French and German so with her second class degree she joined the war department in 1938. After the war the destruction in Germany included the many people who were displaced and hungry amongst the chaos there. Applebey was there for a year employed by the
Allied Control Commission in Berlin. She became involved with various Irish and British church organisations who were uniting to alleviate the problem. This became the charity
Christian Aid and Appleby became one of its directors. The first director was Ms M C Owen and from 1947 the medical director was Dr Alfred Torrie. These roles were combined for her. The National Association for Mental Health (NAMH) was created in 1946 from three voluntary organisations that provided services for the "maladjusted, emotionally disturbed or mentally handicapped to any degree." The organisations were the Central Association for Mental Welfare (CAMW), the National Council for Mental Hygiene (NCMH) and the Child Guidance Council (CGC). In 1969, numerous
Scientologists joined the NCMH and attempted to ratify as official policy a number of points concerning the treatment of
psychiatric patients. When their identity was realised they were expelled from the organisation
en masse. The
Church of Scientology in 1971 unsuccessfully sued the NAMH over the matter in the
High Court. The case was resisted by Appleby and the NCMH and the case became notable in British
charity law. During the 1970s the NCMH became involved with the debate raised by
Ann Shearer that mental hospitals should be shut. Shearer, a
Guardian journalist, was joined by
Anita Hunt of the
Spastics Society and an architect named Sandra Franklin to create the
Campaign for the Mentally Handicapped (CMH). They lobbied the NCMH but Applebey resisted their central objective although they offered support in other areas. Applebey wanted to avoid the hospital v. community debate, but she saw the hospital as a focus for the support. ==References==