[1] She traveled widely in Europe with her mother Julia, became a published children's author, studied music and drawing in France, education, economics, languages and English literature graduating in 1886 with an LLA degree from St. Andrew's University in Scotland.

The first eight years of Cornwall Legh's missionary work in Japan was spent in the service of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Diocese of South Tokyo, notably at St. Andrew's Cathedral (Yokohama) and St. Barnabas' Church, Ushigome.

[3] Despite inheriting a large fortune, she was noted for the simplicity of her dress, empathy and communication with Japanese of varied social status and appreciation of modest local food.

In 1915, Cornwall Legh visited Kusatsu at the request of a Christian belonging to the Koenkai (Light and salt society), which had been established under the influence of Hannah Riddell noted for her work at the Kaishun Hospital for leprosy patients in Kumamoto.

It was a problematic town where hundreds of leprosy patients gathered, mainly in the Yunosawa district, to find a cure or temporary relief from the symptoms of the disease.

The directors of the hospital were: In the 1930s the Japanese Government began to establish residential care facilities for leprosy sufferers, opening the Kuryu Rakusen-en Sanatorium in Kusatsu in 1932.

In 2007, on the 150th anniversary of her birth, a bust of Cornwall Legh was unveiled in Kusatsu in the presence of the British Ambassador to Japan, Sir Graham Holbrooke-Fry.