ELIZABETH Kay’s passion for education — and two decades of selfless voluntary work — have been rewarded with an MBE.

Mrs Kay, aged 92, was instrumental in creating the Bolton chapter of the University of the Third Age, an organisation which runs educational classes in diverse subjects for retired people.

Now, after two decades with the U3A, Mrs Kay, of Poplar Avenue, Astley Bridge, has been awarded an MBE for her years of voluntary service to adult education.

Mrs Kay’s background is not academic — her father was a coal miner, and her mother a dressmaker.

“They weren’t unintelligent, by any means,” she says. “They just didn’t have the advantage of an education.”

She left school with no qualifications, but soon corrected that.

Her interest in accruing knowledge started when her grandfather brought her books, including an encyclopaedia.

As a child, Mrs Kay went to Wharton Presbyterian Church School, which no longer exists, before moving to St Bede’s in Morris Green. She left Deane St Mary’s Church School at 14 to start work as an apprentice weaver at Tootal Broadhurst Lee cotton mill in St Helens Road.

After losing her job she became a confectioner until she married at 21 and stopped work.

Meanwhile, she began to further her education by taking Workers’ Educational Association classes in literature, philosophy and drama.

She passed five O-levels via a correspondence course, which gained her entry to Chorley College as a mature teaching student.

She started her first and only teaching job at Bedford High School in Leigh, where she taught English and drama for 12 years before retiring at 65.

Mrs Kay was introduced to the U3A by Hilary Candler, the principal of Bolton Women’s College, and she started running groups in 1990.

Initially, the U3A had about 40 to 50 members, but it now has more than 100 who meet monthly, and who form more than 20 interest groups.

For about 10 years, Mrs Kay ran all the groups herself, taking monthly and fortnightly classes in various subjects, including English, creative writing and art appreciation.

She has two children, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Although retired from the U3A, she still retains some involvement in the organisation.

She was made a life long member five years ago and has no intention of giving up. “I don’t feel like I could give up altogether,” she says.

julian.thorpe@ theboltonnews.co.uk