Sadie Speight

Sadie Speight, architect and designer, was born on 26 May 1906 at 65 Church Street, Standish, near Wigan, one of two daughters of Alfred Speight, a doctor, and his wife, Mary Annie, née Urmston. Both she and her sister, Kathleen, studied at Manchester University. Speight graduated from the school of architecture with first‑class honours in 1929. She was a prix de Rome finalist and spent time studying abroad, as holder of the Zimmern travelling scholarship in 1929. In 1930 Speight received the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) silver medal for drawing and was elected an associate; in 1932 she held the Faulkner fellowship at Manchester University and gained her master's degree in 1933. Between 1930 and 1934 she was also working as an architectural assistant to Halliday and Associates in Manchester. Recipient of the RIBA Neale bursary in 1934.

On 3 January 1935 Sadie Speight married John Leslie Martin, who had been a fellow student at Manchester University, and they collaborated on the design of a number of private houses, and a kindergarten at Northwich, Cheshire