Florence Ivy Mary Holmes (1891–1983) was a dancer and the English wife of Archibald Belaney (1888 – 1938), commonly known as "Grey Owl".

[1]: 63 Ivy was born in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on 11 April 1891, the daughter of John Robert Holmes, a doctor, and Florence Amelia Jane Abraham (1864-1941).

Around 1900, Florence became friends with the aunts of her future husband, Archibald Belaney, in Hastings, due to a shared interest in purebred Collie dogs.

[1]: 12 ) Florence and Ivy began visiting the Belaney family during school holidays at their home, Highbury Villa on St. James' Road.

He and his aunt Ada also stayed with them on the way to Liverpool, where, on 29 March 1906, he boarded the SS Canada for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Escorted by her mother, Ivy performed in many European countries from 1906 to 1912, including Belgium, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

After a run of three months in Constantinople, the tour was cut short by the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912, and Ivy and her mother returned to England.

We fell violently in love.”[5] For his part, Archie, a future master of the stage himself, must have listened avidly to Ivy’s stories of travelling across Europe.

Ivy later reported that he made the "backwoods sound terribly attractive”,[1]: 61–62  but also said "I began to find him strange, secretive — almost sinister.

"Adventuresome as always, and deeply in love with her husband, Ivy accepted the plan of beginning a life together in the northern Canadian forest.