Arabella Katherine Hankey: Born: 1834, Clapham, Surrey, England. Some report circa 1846. Died: May 9, 1911, London, England.

Miss Hankey, daughter of an English banker, was known as Kate to her friends. Hankey belonged to an evangelical group known as the Clapham Sect. The group was mainly known for its anti-slavery and pro-missionary stances. Hankey taught Sunday school for girls while she was still a teenager. Later, she traveled to South Africa to be a nurse and to help her invalid brother. Hankey contracted a severe illness while in her early 30’s.

During her protracted recovery, in the eighteen-sixties, she wrote a long poem about Jesus, beginning in January and finishing the following November. The poem’s first part, 50 stanzas in length, asking about Him was entitled The Story Wanted. The second part answering the question was named The Story Told. The combined poem, entitled The Old, Old Story appeared in her volume, Heart to Heart, published in 1865 or 1866. The hymns Tell Me the Old, Old Story and I Love to Tell the Story both come from this poem.

Dr. William Howard Doane was present at the International Conference of the Y.M.C.A. at Montreal in 1867, and heard the poem, Tell Me the Old, Old Story read – with tears and in a broken voice – by the veteran Major-General Russell. It impressed Doane so much that he borrowed and copied it, and subsequently set it to music during a vacation in the White Mountains.

This second hymn, I Love to Tell the Story was supplied with a tune by William Gustavus Fischer in 1869, and harmonized the next year by Hubert Platt Main.

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