Biography of Kay Macaulife

Kay grew up in Barnes, attending Putney High School for Girls. Both she and her brother Alan belonged to Barnes Sports Club, and were active in its Dramatic Section. In 1933, aged 24, she married another member of the Sports Club, Philip William Macaulife. They spent their honeymoon in Paris, then set up home, `Maxone', in Feltham, Middlesex, where their first child was born in 1935. In World War II, while Phil and Alan were away serving in the Royal Artillery, Amy Roberts, by then widowed, with Kay and the two children, moved to the seaside village of Felpham in Sussex. Kay joined the Women's Voluntary Service, and worked with them thoughout the war. She worked too as secretary at Bognor Regis Town Hall. After demobilization, Phil and Alan both came to Felpham too. The Macaulifes sought a family home for themselves. Housing was in short supply, and at first they moved between places available only on short lease. Kay was an active member of Felpham and Middleton Women's Institute. She gave lectures to Sussex groups of the W.I., with character studies and impersonations of literary and historical figures. She also wrote and directed plays for them. In 1947, an offshoot of Felpham and Middleton W. I. developed: the Kay Club. In 1949 the Macaulife family moved further inland, from Felpham to North Bersted. Kay took parts in productions of the Phoenix Players, the professional Repertory Company playing at the Roof Garden Theatre on the landward end of the pier at nearby Bognor Regis. After that Company closed, she became Secretary of the Company that established its successor, the Buskin Players. As well as her secretarial role, Kay acted in many of the Buskin Players productions. In 1952 the Macaulifes left Sussex, moving to South Wimbledon, nearer to Phil's work in the London tea market. There Kay continued her theatrical work as an actress with the Wimbledon Repertory Players, the Hovenden Theatre Club in Covent Garden, Langley Radio Theatre, Merton Park Townswomen's Guild, and Carlton Dramatic Society. She also had small parts in some films. After retirement, in 1993 Kay and Phil moved to Hatfield, Hertfordshire, near to their daughter, where they celebrated their Diamond Wedding. Phil Macaulife died in 1994, aged 91, and Kay in 1995. She is the subject of the book, Kay Macaulife: Women take the stage edited by Hazel K. Bell (Anna Brown Associates, 2003). From Deborah Fisher's review on the Tregolwyn Book Reviews site - "Had she been born fifty years later, Kay Macaulife, with the opportunities available to women from all kinds of background, might well have become another Lynda La Plante. In the context of her time, she created for herself a pretty full life, ending it with a list of achievements that most of her contemporaries would have been proud to boast."
- Hazel Bell