[3][4] Airy trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1899 to 1903, where she studied alongside William Orpen and Augustus John, and under Fred Brown, Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer.

[5][6] During World War I, Airy was given commissions in a number of factories and painted her canvases on site in often difficult and, sometimes, dangerous conditions.

[12] Airy was married to the artist Geoffrey Buckingham Pocock and for many years the couple lived at Haverstock Hill in Hampstead before moving to Playford near Ipswich.

Her work also appeared in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney as well as in Auckland, New Zealand; Vancouver and Ottawa in Canada; and in the Corporation Art Galleries of Liverpool, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Rochdale, Ipswich, Doncaster, Lincoln, Harrogate, Paisley and Newport.

[5] A painting by Airy, The Golden Plum Tree, shown at a 1916 exhibition of works by female artists was acquired by Queen Mary.