Her parents were Kate Elizabeth (born Howitt) and Frederick William Gwilliam.

She left Rochester Girl's Grammar School to read history at Girton College in Cambridge.

[3] In 1947 she gave up being a college principal to work at Britain's Colonial Office in a newly created role of "woman educational adviser".

In 1966 her 1954 OBE was upgraded to a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Birthday Honours list.

[2] She retired in 1970 as Deputy Chief Education Adviser to the Minister in the Ministry of Overseas Development, but she returned in 1972 to join the Pearce Commission which was tasked with deciding whether the newly proposed constitution for Rhodesia was acceptable.