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Kay Baker

Don Beattie Said

Kay Baker sadly died in late 23/24 February 2019 at the age 
of 77. Here Don Beattie, for whom she worked for 21 years, 
gives a personal reminiscence of her.

When I joined ICL in Stevenage in 1975 as Group Personnel
 Manager of CED, there was very little in the way of 
infrastructure in the HR function in CED. I set about building
an HR function, and the first thing was to find a good
secretary/PA. Amongst the applicants for the job was Kay 
Baker. At the time she was working in Letchworth (I must admit 
I can’t remember who for), (I met Kay when she was working in 
No3 Factory and was there when the Specials Dept moved from 
Stevenage. Editor) but came highly recommended by those who 
knew her. After interviewing a few, it was very clear that the 
only choice was Kay and she joined me in late 1975. She set 
about creating systems and processes and acting as a very able 
PA to me.


In the scheme of things in ICL nothing stood still for long, 
and three years later, I found myself heading up “UK Division” 
– the combination of sales and service for the UK. This was a 
Putney -based role and it was a delight to me to find that Kay 
was prepared to make the daily commute from Hitchin to Putney 
to be able to continue to work with me.

Time moved on, and in 1984 Peter Bonfield asked me to be ICL’s 
Personnel Director. Kay agreed to stay with me, and we 
installed ourselves initially in the top floor of Bridge House 
South, and later on the 13th floor (or was it 14th?) of ICL 
House alongside Peter and the Finance Director and Quality 
Director. Twelve happy years followed where we had a lot of 
fun and did a great deal of very hard work.

In 1996 I left to take up a new role with BOC and the 
geography was just too far for Kay to stay with me. So we 
parted and she took a new role with ex-ICLer Peter (now Sir 
Peter) Gershon in Northern Telecom. After some time there, she 
took another PA role in London before retiring in the early 2000’s.

In all my time working with Kay, she was utterly consistent in 
her loyalty, her discretion (important in an HR role) her work 
output and her sense of fun. She was always immaculately 
dressed and helped present a professional front office image. 
Her network across ICL was immense, and everyone who came to 
the office seemed to be old friends with her. Always able to 
be serious appropriate to the moment, nonetheless she had an 
eye for the pompous and would “stick a pin” in anyone who had 
an over-inflated view of his or her position. Socially she was 
outstanding at building relationships and in a social 
gathering was invaluable in getting people to talk and open 
up. Outside work, she had so many interests. An accomplished 
ballroom dancer, she was instrumental in helping run a dance 
club in Letchworth. She also relished sport, initially playing 
badminton, squash and swimming and later, playing golf. In 
recent years she became very involved with the local Women’s 
Institute in her village of Ickleford, ending up as President.

Kay enjoyed travel, and she and her husband Derek owned time-
share properties in various parts of Europe. She was a great 
social hostess and was part of several dinner groups and of a 
women’s lunch club in Luton.  Her pride and joy for some years 
was a Jaguar XK8 convertible, which she found just to her 
liking. 

I am immensely grateful for having known Kay and for having 
enjoyed her support and loyalty for so many years. For so many 
of us, her light has gone out far too early. She will be sadly 
missed.  Rest in peace, Kay.     

Alan Gillman Said :-  

Thanks Adrian .Don,s long piece says It all.But I would be 
happy to add my bit as some one probable better know to the CS 
readers of  your news letter ,as follows . Don’s tribute to 
Kay sums her up very well and says It all ,but I would like to 
add my bit.


I had the  privilege of knowing Kay as a ICL colleague and 
friend ,  for many ,many years . We stayed In touch and saw 
each other with our partners very  frequently ,  thanks to our 
shared  love and enjoyment of ballroom/ sequence dancing after 
our ICL days. We became even closer together when we become 
founder members of  the North Herts  50+ Social Dance 
committee, Kay as secretary and myself as chairman . The 
committee came into being as we are very fortunate in having a 
superb ballroom In our area, part of what Is known as the 
Spirella Building in Letchworth.  In 2000 the North Herts 
Council launched an Initiative to encourage the 50 + community 
to get out, keep fit and enjoy life and thought dancing was a 
perfect fit. It would only be included In the program If the 
local community  formed a  committee to organise and take 
responsibility for a program of dances under the umbrella of 
the council  which we along with four others willingly did. 
Our dances were always very,  very popular, unique In that we 
only had live music and at least once a year we Included 
Interval demonstrations from many top couples such as Anton de 
Beck, Ian Waite, winners of South Africa's Strictly  etc. Kay 
was the one that contacted, booked and greeted them. 

In 2010 the council gave notice they were withdrawing support 
from their 50+ groups . Most closed down but after much 
deliberation, we decided as we were financial successful, and 
our events were so popular, we would continue as an 
Independent group.  We were only able to do this thanks to 
people like Kay  bringing  her business experience and 
personality to the venture which brought so much enjoyment to 
our local community. I could go on much longer about Kay as 
the lovely person she was , who will be sadly missed by so 
many , but I will close by mentioning Kay's love of golf ,she 
was a valued member of the Chesfield  Down ladies golf section 
who meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am told she was always 
there when ever she could make It to join the 9 holer's, and 
was, as I could have guessed, a very good player. I know from 
feedback all members are shocked and  saddened  by Kay's 
untimely  death and like us all who knew her feel privileged 
to have known and shared so many  things with her .  Thankyou 
Kay . 

 Alan Gillman   

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