Catherine Dawson Giles was born on July 31, 1878, in Lewisham in south-east London.
In 1904 she met the English painter and illustrator Jessica Dismorr, a fellow student at Etaples, with whom she became lifelong friends.
[4][5] During World War I Giles served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse.
[2] Giles exhibited with the New English Art Club in the 1920s and had a one-woman show of watercolours and gouaches at the Claridge Galleries.
[2][5] Notable works by Giles include Village roofs, South of France a pencil and watercolour from 1930.