She attended the Edgbaston High School for Girls and later joined the family business in construction and coal sales, where she became a director.
During the Second World War, Dony worked in an aircraft factory and volunteered in Air Raid Precautions.
[1] Dony was highly athletic in her youth, and played on England's national field hockey team five times.
[1] During this time, she oversaw the transfer of the steadily growing membership records and subscription service to the Society of General Microbiology at Reading.
She regularly gave presentations at meetings of the BSBI and Bedfordshire Natural History Society and published findings in Watsonia.