Merritt was born in Petersfield and attended Bedales School and then the Royal College of Music (violin, piano and conducting).
[4] The Petersfield Music Festival had its peak years in the 1930s: it was a four-day event, incorporating choral competitions and running multiple concerts featuring many regional musicians and singers.
Along with Merritt, the local philanthropist Harry Roberts helped raise funds to build a new Town Hall, which opened in 1935 as the primary Festival venue.
[10] On 28 April 1960 Merritt organized and conducted a Wigmore Hall concert of 'Contemporary British Women Composers', featuring the music of Ina Boyle, Ruth Gipps, Dorothy Howell, Antoinette Kirkwood, Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams.
Others included the older generations of Florence Ashton Marshall, Gwynne Kimpton and Ethel Leginska,[12] and her near contemporaries Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Iris Lemare and Kathleen Riddick.