After moving to Hong Kong from Britain, Tu set up Mu Kuang English School in 1954, where she often gave exercise classes to the students.

"I never smoke … I never drink - I think that must be good for your health - physical exercise and never eat until you feel full," she added.

Tu said her late Chinese husband was the biggest influence on her and taught her to be kind and strong.

As she says it, she glances at the oil painting of Andrew Tu Hsueh-kwei which hangs in the sitting room of her home on the top floor of a wing of Mu Kuang English School. The couple co-founded the secondary school in 1954 and it moved to its current site in Kwun Tong in 1972.

"He was a very kind person. People used to send us clothing to give to the poor … He would wear one shirt for years even after it was torn. He gave the rest away," Tu said.

Andrew, from Inner Mongolia, joined the same church that Elsie and her then-husband William Elliott belonged to back in the '50s. The couple had moved to Hong Kong in 1951 after three years of missionary work across the border.

"I gave him the name Andrew because Andrew was the apostle who helped the people. He was the one who influenced me after we came to Hong Kong."

Tu added: "Mr Tu was very outspoken … he taught me a lot of things to make me understand better the Chinese ways," she said. "And when he went to England, I told him how to understand the English ways."

Tu and Andrew, along with their church, set up the one-classroom school in 1954 by putting up an army tent in what was then known as Kai Tak New Village, in a street called Rifle Range Road.

Tu taught English subjects while Andrew taught Chinese ones.

A year later, they had two classrooms erected on the same spot thanks to a donation from someone in Canada, of whom they had never heard.

That meant they could register the school with the Education Department. Tu became a school supervisor and teacher and Andrew, who died of cancer in 2001, the principal.

Tu returned to England with William in late 1955 but came back alone the following summer to defend her school from other church members who had occupied it with the intention of opening a kindergarten.

"They were violent. They tried to push me out of the school. I had bruises all over my back and all down my legs … They bumped me with chairs, just trying to get me out," she said.

"Mr Tu was there. They picked him up and threw him out."

The couple called the police and the church members never returned.

It helped, too, that the Education Department was also on the couple's side.

Tu said building up the school over the years had been her greatest ambition. "I've been happy most of my life really. Because every time we opened a new building, I was happy.

"The happiest one was when Mr Tu and I stood on the balcony of this building, and we could see … on one side, there was the hall; on the other side, we had laboratories. [I was happy] to see the school with everything ready."

Elsie Tu

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England

Married William Elliott

Arrived in China for missionary work with Elliott

Moved to Hong Kong with Elliott

Founded Mu Kuang English School

Elected member of the Urban Council

Member of the Kwun Tong District Board

Wed Andrew Tu Hsueh-kwei

Vice-chair of the Urban Council

Member of the HKSAR Basic Law Consultative Committee

Member of the Legislative Council

House Committee chair of the Legislative Council

Lost to Democrat Szeto Wah in Urban Council and Legco polls

Hong Kong Affairs Adviser to the People's Republic of China

Member of the HKSAR First Chief Executive Selection Committee

Member of the Provisional Legislative Council