He was born in Lewisham in London the son of Annie Margaret and her husband Bruce Etherington, both of whom were Baptist missionaries normally based in Ceylon.
His mother remarried in 1913 to Edwin Duncombe de Rusett, a Baptist minister, but Ivor retained his original name.
His proposers were Sir Edmund Whittaker, Herbert Westren Turnbull, Edward Thomas Copson and David Gibb.
[5] On his retirement in 1974,[citation needed] Etherington moved with his wife to Easdale on the Scottish west coast, where the family had always had a holiday home.
[citation needed] During World War II he and his wife aided 32 German refugees, giving many shelter in their own home.