[1][2][3] She was born in Trellis Cottage, Rushbrooke, Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork, to English-born parents, Captain Leonard Augustus Stafford Northcote and Lilian Cora Van Praagh.

[5] Her mother was of Dutch descent and her father was a member of the aristocratic Northcote family.

Her parents divorced in 1912 after her father abandoned the family and moved to Australia with another woman.

Leonard wrote to his wife, "I have cut myself entirely adrift from my former life and thrown in my lot with some one else.

[6][7] She made an appearance on the BBC's television game show Call My Bluff in 1968.