Mary had an interest in China and Chinese people from an early age. In her twenties she found her way to Singapore and Malaysia to teach English to Chinese communities at the Anglican High Schools (1959-69). This was a period when Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution with its Red Guards and violence had created a divide between China and the West; mutual suspicion and distrust were the norm on both sides.

 However, Mary was not “the norm”. Far from it, Mary had her own ideas and saw her role as bridging that gap. It is fair to say that over her life she had as many Chinese friends as she had English ones. Unusual indeed for the 1970s.

Her fondness for Chinese people and culture made her determined to consolidate her knowledge of China and the Chinese language. In 1969 she began her degree course at the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Her classmates were three men destined to become British Ambassadors to China:  Sir Alan Donald, Sir Richard Evans and Sir Robin Maclaren. Mary felt herself their equal: she graduated with a First. 

On graduation in 1971, Mary joined the Sino-British Trade Council, a body set up by government and industry to promote Britain’s trade with China (and a forerunner of the China-Britain Business Council). There she worked with the director, Peter Marshall (a long- time China hand); the two fell in love and became happy partners. At the time a major part of the activity took the form of general trade exhibitions and missions. Mary was an active organizer and energetic participant in the British Industrial Technology Exhibition in 1973, which was visited by Zhou Enlai, and in subsequent years. 

Mary’s talent for bringing British and Chinese business people together was recognized when she was made Director of the SBTC in 1978. Mary cut a distinctive figure with Chinese and British contacts alike. Mary was a woman in a male environment: on one rather rowdy occasion with the (all-male) business delegation celebrating at the end of a mission, Lord Nelson rebuked his colleagues for their bawdy remarks: Mary responded diplomatically that she would either pretend not to hear, or would join in the laughter. Mary knew how to smooth the way out of difficult situations.

Mary, an active woman, with her tall figure, and a fluent Chinese speaker (a rarity for a westerner then) was also a distinctive character in China. Mary was well-known and well-liked not only within SBTC’s counterpart, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, but also among the import-export corporations which then conducted China’s foreign trade.
Mary worked with a succession of distinguished Presidents: Sir John Keswick, Lord Nelson, Sir Peter Matthews and Lord Sharp. I know that they each recognized Mary’s talents, and treated her with some affection. As Lord Sharp said when Mary retired in 1990, it was difficult to think of the SBTC without Mary Penn.

Mary was constantly surrounded by recent graduates in Chinese, mostly in their twenties and often in their first job. Mary told them what to do, then let them get on with it; her total trust was repaid. She created a totally loyal team. There were the Chinese speakers: Philip Snow, Adam Williams, Katherine Duxbury, Janet Kealey, Katie Lee, John Beyer, Nick Bradbury among others: all of them destined after graduation from Mary’s training and tutelage to go on to higher things. There were also figures like Mary’s PA Hilary Footer, who remained a close friend to Mary until Mary died.

The highest point in Mary’s remarkable career (she was unusual in having met most senior Chinese leaders as organizer of high level delegations), was the organization of events to coincide with the visit of HM Queen Elizabeth to China in 1986. While the Royal Yacht Britannia graced the dockside in Shanghai, Mary oversaw “Land Day” in the hotels around, with a series of seminars and events involving some 500 British businessmen and their Chinese counterparts.

Mary received recognition for her work, on this event and for many others, with the award of an OBE in 1989. From the Chinese side, Mary was honoured with Honorary Membership of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in 1990. When Mary retired, HE  Ji Chaozhu, the then Chinese Ambassador, paid this tribute: “Miss Mary Penn has over the years made many valuable contributions to Sino-British trade relations. Pan Mali Nüshi (Mary Penn), a familiar name in the Chinese business circles, has a lot of friends in China. It is my firm belief that with her rich experience, she will continue to play an active role in enhancing Sino-British friendship in the years to come.”
Mary retired from the SBTC in 1990, but her charming Lakeside Cottage in the countryside near Liphook was always open to Chinese visitors, and to her long-time friends, including TC and Nancy Tang.

While there were few Chinese people active in foreign trade in the 1970s and 1980s who did not know the name of Pan Mali (as she was known in Chinese), there were certainly no British businessmen dealing with China who did not know and respect Mary Penn.