She was born Anna Dora Creditor near Riga, Latvia, then part of Russia, the eldest of four sisters and a brother.

She was educated at Coborn High School for Girls in Bow, east London.

[2] She abandoned a career in medicine to marry Isaac Frost, a lecturer in physiology, on 15 March 1921.

[2] On 23 January 1964, she was made a life peer with the title Baroness Gaitskell, of Egremont in the County of Cumberland.

[1] She outlived Hugh Gaitskell by 26 years after his death in January 1963, living until July 1989 and the age of 88.