Kay Hassell was born in 1928, the second of four children. Her father, Gordon, was a businessman. He played a key role in enabling the Oxford Group to be registered as a company in the face of opposition from AP Herbert, the MP for Oxford, amongst others.
The Hassell family were associated with the Oxford Group from when Kay was about four. One of her early memories, when she was ten, is of attending a public screening of the MRA film, Youth Marches On (qv), at a Saturday morning cinema club, which were popular in the days before television. The film features the song, Wise old Horsey. After the film, the manager asked for volunteers to sing the song. None did so, and Kay found herself singing it solo from the stage to several hundred children.
Kay’s professional life was in teaching. As well as working in state schools she taught in small MRA-run schools in London and Caux. But her main position was as Head of Penrhos College Junior School in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, from 1961 for 24 years. Three other members of staff were dedicated MRA people – the Head of the senior school, Constance Smith, who was Kay’s boss; Margaret Forman; and Hilary Entwistle, who both taught in the Senior School.
On retiring, Kay looked after Gordon until his death at the age of 88 in 1978. (Her mother had died as a result of an accident in 1952.) She now shares a flat with her older brother, David, in Otterbourne, Hampshire, He is a retired school-teacher of modern languages.
