Elsie Tappenden was born in London in 1921 and became a primary school teacher. During the Second World War she met and married Edward Breeze, a conscientious objector and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and under his influence became involved in politics and joined the Communist Party.

In 1964 Edward Breeze was offered a contract to work at the Foreign Languages Press (F.L.P.) Headquarters in Peking but, as his mother was very ill at the time, Elsie agreed to go in his place. She worked at the F.L.P. as a proofreader and lived in the Friendship Hostel with other foreigners who had been invited to work there as they believed in Marxism and wanted to see the progress China was making since the 1949 revolution. Elsie came back to England in the summer of 1965 and returned to Peking in September taking her 13 year old son, Richard,with her. Richard attended school and learnt Chinese. Elsie moved to a post as a teacher at a college which trained young Chinese adults for work at the F.L.P.

Elsie and Richard returned to England in November 1966 following the disruption to schools and colleges caused by the Cultural Revolution.

For further details see Margaret Clark's account of her mother's time in China in the collection.