She was the sister of Margery (1886–1974), Brynhild (1887–1935) and Noël (1893–1969), and the first cousin of the actor Laurence Olivier (1907–1989).

Daphne Olivier studied medieval and modern languages at Newnham College, Cambridge and, together with her sisters Bryn and Noël, belonged to the social circle that gathered around Rupert Brooke: a group that Virginia Woolf named the Neo-Pagans.

That same year she met both Barfield and his close friend Cecil Harwood at a concert tour of the English Folk Dance Society, where she sang and played the fiddle.

[4] Olivier approached Steiner for support in starting a Waldorf School in England, gathered a group of three other women and, on being advised by Steiner to include also a male teacher, asked her friend Harwood to join.

Lewis was a frequent visitor to the couple's home in London and became godfather to their son Laurence.