[2] Harriet Jane Backhouse was born in County Durham, the only daughter of banker Sir Jonathan Backhouse, 1st Baronet (1849–1918) and Florence Salusbury-Trelawny (1845–1902), daughter of John Salusbury-Trelawny.

[2] In 1919, Findlay joined Rosaline Masson, Ella Millar and Miss M.R.

MacLeod as the first four women to become members of the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh's influential conservation organisation formed in 1875 to protect and preserve the built heritage, natural environment and civic amenity in the city.

She chaired the management board of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary during the Depression.

With her husband Sir John Ritchie Findlay, 1st Baronet (13 January 1866 – 13 April 1930), she had two surviving sons and two daughters: