She had an indulgent childhood courtesy of her grandfather, James Grimble Groves, a member of parliament and a brewery owner.

[3] She and her husband, along with Chekhov, left for the United States as war approached, intending to establish a drama school there to teach the Stanislavski method of acting.

They were sent back by convoy and Cumming assisted with encrypting and decrypting coded messages between the British and American governments.

[4] In 1968, she appeared in the Italian comedy film The Girl Who Couldn't Say No where she played the mother of George Segal's character, Franco.

Cumming helped to catalogue his paintings and, after he died in 1986, she arranged his funeral and for his ashes to be scattered at the Caves of Hercules in Morocco.

She stayed in Britain to receive health care but she was keen to avoid publicity as she did not want to have her condition associated with her life style.