Vickers was born in London on 3 June 1907, the eldest daughter of (Horace) Cecil Vickers (1882-1944), a stockbroker, and his wife, Lilian Munro Lambert Grose[1] (1880-1923), a social worker, only daughter of Woodman Cole Grose, MBE, a civil servant.

Her father joined Nelke, Phillips & Bendix, a London stockbroking firm who counted Edward VII as one of their clients.

In 1917 he set up his own firm, Vickers, da Costa, which counted Sir Winston Churchill among their clients.

She was trained as a Norland Nurse, working in the Margaret Macdonald and Mary Middleton Hospital, Notting Hill and was active in politics in Battersea and Islington.

He told her he deeply disapproved of women in politics, particularly in parliament, but advised her to wear a pretty hat and join the London County Council.

In 1939 she was nominated by the British Red Cross to serve as Divisional Secretary, Lambeth Division, and in 1940 similarly for Southwark.

[2] Vickers worked for 14 months with the Red Cross in Indonesia, four years in British Malaya (now Malaysia) as a Social Welfare Area Officer in Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johore.

She was a founder member of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, and started the work in Malaysia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.

[2] From there she went to Malaya where she served as Area Welfare Officer, Department of Social Service from January 1947 to May 1948.

Though the seat was thought to be safe for the Labour Party, she defeated incumbent Michael Foot by 100 votes, after canvassing every residence in the constituency.

[3] She was instrumental in the passage of the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983 in the House of Lords.