Her father was George David Radford who was a partner in a drapers in Mannamead.
Her mother Catherine Agnes had ten children and Wallas was the penultimate.
Her non-conformist and close knit family sent her to Plymouth High School for Girls and then on to Newnham College to study mathematics.
She had a private income[1] and she also was now a published writer after pieces had appeared in The Yellow Book[2] and the Westminster Gazette.
[1] May obtained her doctorate at the London School of Economics, which her father had founded.