Bessie Dorrington Bangay was an English church worker.
12 Facts About Bessie Bangay
1.
2.
Bessie Bangay had a twin sister, Evelyn, known as Evie, and four older siblings.
3.
Bessie Bangay's parents were from Norfolk; her father was a doctor and a socialist, who gave popular science lectures and built an observatory on his property.
4.
Bangay and her twin sister moved to Chesham, Buckinghamshire in 1910, and Bessie started to teach Sunday school at St George's Church, Tyler's Hill, Ley Hill.
5.
Bessie Bangay led St George's Church during the war, and afterwards.
6.
Bessie Bangay took charge of the Sunday school when it resumed in 1919, and set up a ladies' cricket team, as well as groups for girls, young wives, mothers, and senior citizens.
7.
Bessie Bangay was in charge of the church's annual Nativity play.
8.
Bessie Bangay began a branch congregation at a pub in nearby Lye Green in the 1930s, and continued to run the "pub church" until 1963.
9.
Bessie Bangay founded the Ley Hill Women's Institute, and was a member of the Chiltern Arts Society.
10.
Bessie Bangay attended the National School for Religious Drama in 1955.
11.
Bessie Bangay died in 1987, aged 97 years, and was the long-serving and last remaining of the original Bishop's Messengers in England.
12.
Bessie Bangay's grave is in St George's churchyard; Evie Bangay died within the year, and is buried with Bessie.