Born in Belsize Park, London, Adele was the eldest daughter of the merchant Julius Levis.

Adele and her husband were art collectors and enthusiastic patrons of the opera, but in 1910 she described herself as "a humble social worker".

Formed in 1907, its aim was to improve the infant mortality rate, which at the time was about 15 per cent in that part of London by, among other things, providing basic medical advice and cooking lessons for women in their own homes.

Their report, Makers of our Clothes, Being the Results of a Year's Investigation into the Work of Women in London in the Tailoring, Dressmaking and Underclothing Trades, appeared in 1909.

[5][6] It concluded that the rates of pay were so low that women were forced to work almost around the clock, leaving them no time to care for their families "If there is any immediate means by which legislation might diminish the evil of underpayment, it is the highest time that legislation should intervene in aid of a law-abiding, industrious, and greatly oppressed, class of citizens.