[3][4] She was a teacher before her marriage, teaching mathematics and French at the Christ Church Day School in North Adelaide and later becoming co-principal.
[11] She was also a vice-president and executive member of the Women's Non-Party Association for a period in the late 1920s and early 1930s, taking over as president from 1938 to 1940.
[12][13] She unsuccessfully contested the 1930 state election as an independent candidate aligned with the Women's Non-Party Association.
Her platform consisted of proportional representation, more support for maternal and child welfare, early closing of hotels on Saturdays, "proper control of the feeble-minded", decentralisation, changes to taxation, and "economy of administration in government service".
[1][16] She wrote several novels as "Cecil Warren", some in collaboration with Kate Margaret Stone ("Sydney Partrige"), not all of which were published, and contributed poetry and prose to several early twentieth century literary magazines.