Sandra Kerr

Sandra Kerr was born on 14 February 1942 in Plaistow, then in Essex and now part of the London Borough of Newham. As a young woman she spent a year living with the folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger as their au pair and folk apprentice, an experience that drew her into the heart of the British folk revival.

From 1963 to 1972 Kerr was a member of the Critics Group, the singers' workshop led by MacColl and Seeger, and she appeared on its recordings for the Argo label, including A Merry Progress to London, Sweet Thames Flow Softly, Waterloo-Peterloo and The Female Frolic. She played English concertina, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer and autoharp.

With John Faulkner she wrote the music for Sam on Boffs' Island, an educational programme produced by Michael Rosen. Oliver Postgate heard it and asked the pair to score Bagpuss, the Smallfilms series he made with Peter Firmin. Given freedom to draw on traditional folk tunes and improvise around Postgate's stories and lyrics, they created the gentle sound of the show, and Kerr voiced Madeleine the rag doll while Faulkner played Gabriel the toad. Bagpuss first aired in 1974.

Kerr also worked on BBC radio programmes including The Music Box and Listen with Mother. In 1979 she published My Song Is My Own, a collection of one hundred women's songs from the British Isles, with Kathy Henderson and Frankie Armstrong. She recorded children's songs, political and campaigning songs, and albums with the groups Sisters Unlimited and Voice Union, and with her daughter Nancy Kerr and James Fagan.

Teaching became a central part of her work. She directed folk choirs, led singing workshops and spent 17 years on the staff of Newcastle University's music department, retiring from the university in 2017. She continued performing and teaching into her eighties.

Kerr's daughter, the folk musician Nancy Kerr, was born to her and the Northumbrian piper Ron Elliott, and mother and daughter often performed together. Nancy is married to the musician James Fagan. Kerr was a grandmother to Hamish, Harry and Jasper. Her family said that in her final months she mostly wanted to spend time with them, walk along the Northumbrian coast and watch the birds in her garden.

Kerr was diagnosed with leukaemia in March 2026. Supportive treatment and transfusions allowed her to attend Whitby Folk Week in August. She died peacefully in the early hours of 29 October 2026, aged 84.

James Fagan announced her death on behalf of the family, saying she had slipped away in the quiet hours of the morning and was peaceful at the end. He described her as an incredible educator, an outstanding songwriter, musician and choir leader, and a loving partner, wonderful mother and lovely nana. Smallfilms said her music had brought joy to the world and would continue to inspire generations, and the music organisation Live to your Living Room called her a true legend in the folk world.

Through Bagpuss, Kerr's music reached millions of children who never knew her name. The series was voted the nation's favourite BBC children's programme in 1999, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024, and a film mixing live action and animation was in development for a planned 2027 release. In 2026 she told Radio Times that fans still approached her in tears to say the programme had been a place of security in their childhoods. Within folk music she is remembered as a teacher and choir leader who passed traditional song on to new singers, and as a voice for women's songs and social causes.