Her father, a Boer War veteran, served, from 1925 to 1928, as Customs Commissioner for Kowloon (within Hong Kong, although this position had no connection with the British colonial administration).

During this period Mary attended school in Hong Kong and frequently spent weekends of leisure at the Commissioner's official country bungalow near Fan Ling Golf Club.

[3] Later in life, she had a small uncredited role as a nursing home resident in the 1993 Eric Sykes film The Big Freeze, opposite her husband.

[6] Mary Hayley Bell wrote four plays: Men in Shadow (1942), Angel (1947), Duet for Two Hands (1945), and The Uninvited Guest (1953).

[9] Whistle Down the Wind was made into a film in 1961 (starring daughter Hayley Mills) and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in 1996.

Its title is believed to have been inspired by the sound of the wind around the bow windows of The Wick, the family's home on Richmond Hill, London.

She recalled an after-dinner party in Mills's dressing room after one of his performances as George in Of Mice and Men at the Apollo Theatre.