[2] Born Margaret Beth Noye, (but always known just by the first name Beth), Gott won a Trinity College Council Non-Resident Exhibition in 1940,[3] and completed a BSc in botany at the University of Melbourne[4] with first class honours as well as being awarded the Caroline Kay Scholarship in Botany for 1943.
Gott was married twice, meeting both husbands while studying at Melbourne University in the early 1940s.
Her first husband, Clifford Wilson Serpell (6 November 1915 – 3 March 1944), joined the RAAF as a Flying Officer and was killed during air operations over Burma.
[9] She married her second husband Ken Gott (1922–1990), a journalist and left wing activist, in 1948; both were members of the Communist Party until disillusionment with communism led to them leaving.
Gott learned many stories of Aboriginal life in northern Victoria from her grandmother, which she credited with sparking her interest in indigenous plants.