[4] An ancestor of Henderson's was an archbishop who fought against the Turkish in the Greek War of Independence and her grandfather, Panagiotis Kavvadias, established a museum on the Acropolis.
[2] Henderson instead went holidaying in Greece with her mother in mid-1939 but was advised by her father to remain in the country when the Second World War began until there was no danger from German bombing.
[2][5] She trained as a nurse applying to the Greek Voluntary Red Cross and successfully passed all her examinations and obtained a role working at a first aid station in Athens.
[5] Henderson treated war casualties from the Albanian front at a military hospital,[5] but was suspected by the German authorities and arrested by the SS for helping British servicemen in a soup kitchen during the resulting famine.
[2][4] Between 1946 and 1949, Henderson worked as a journalist for the magazines Life and Time covering the Greek Civil War against the Guerrilla and Elas Communist factions.
"[3] Caroline Charles noted Henderson had "brought glamour and international knowledge and funding" to the fashion industry along with bringing well-known individuals together.
[4] Mary Galea Debono of Pink magazine calls her "a perfectionist" who "redefined the role of a diplomat's wife" with her focus on style.