From 1936 the family lived in Newfoundland then Nova Scotia, returning to England in 1945, where Pam attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, Middlesex.
She was attracted by the fact that the clothes list included "two pairs of gumboots and a mackintosh" rather than the "cap and gown" required at Wye College, and this reflected the practical nature of the training offered by the school's founder, Beatrix Havergal.
Whilst there she formed a close friendship with Sibylle Kreutzberger, a fellow student, with whom she was to work for the rest of her life.
[9] In 1991 the two women bought a house together at Manor Farm, Condicote, near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, where they made a garden that was much admired.
[3] The widely copied "Sissinghurst look",[13] owed as much, if not more, to Schwerdt and Kreuzberger as to Sackville-West (who died in 1962, only 3 years after the new head gardeners joined).
[14] Signature characteristics were planting a profusion of flowers in colourful tonal displays, dense rose beds, the use of topiary and trellises to give sculptural shapes, and selective wildness.