[2] Her father was British Colonial Administrator Sir John Peter Grant, who later served as the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and as Governor of Jamaica, and her mother was Henrietta Chichele Plowden.

Sir Richard and Lady Strachey had 13 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood – Lytton, James, Dorothea, Pernel, Oliver, Marjorie, Dick, Ralph, Philippa and Elinor.

She became a member of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage in 1868 but moved to India with her husband who was posted in the British Colonial administration again.

In 1909 she became an editorial board member of the English Woman's Journal and was elected as the President of the South Paddington Committee of the London Society for Women's Suffrage.

Virginia Woolf wrote an extensive obituary essay detailing Lady Strachey's contribution to the women's movement.