Mary Kessell was born in London in 1914 and died in 1977. She studied at Clapham School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Kessell taught Drawing and Design at the London School of Printing and Graphic Art.
Kessell was a painter in oil and watercolour of landscapes and figure subjects and also a mural painter and illustrator. She worked in Germany in 1945 as an Official War Artist. An exhibition of large biblical subjects was shown at the National Gallery during the war.