Unlike many of her Scottish-born siblings, Moffatt was born in Spittal in northern England.

She was the last but one of seven children born to Gottlob and Margaret Liddell (Dowie) Linck.

Moffat refused to pay and was sentenced to two weeks in Holloway Prison.

Later that year, her husband Graham Moffat, who, like her, was also an active suffragette and actor, founded an organisation for men who supported women's suffrage Men's League for Women's Suffrage .

Moffatt and her husband emigrated to South Africa in 1933, but she continued to appear in US films including a minor part in Alfred Hitchcock's film Saboteur.