Behind the draper’s shop was a hall in which Mr Fuller organized free public entertainment on Sunday afternoons, having his daughters recite, sing and play various instruments – the eldest girl learned the harp, for instance.

[2] Having incautiously underwritten a friend’s research, Mr Fuller was made bankrupt in 1908, and Walter (who was editing periodicals in London) became financially responsible for the family.

With him as their musical director, impresario, and chaperone, the three older sisters – including Rosalind, then – arrived in New York at Christmas 1911, with enough money for three weeks in a hotel.

They were an instant success; within six months they were invited to sing at the White House, but left for home before they could fit the President into their busy schedule.

During these tours, they continued to collect folksongs, and Rosalind alerted Cecil Sharp to the work of Olive Dame Campbell; he immediately undertook the research on which half of his reputation is founded.

Back in England after World War I, Rosalind decided that she wanted to go on the stage, and signed on as a chorus girl with a Paris troupe that she had never previously heard of, the Folies Bergère.

During their affair, she inspired him with a short story (published as Head and Shoulders) which his agent sold to the Saturday Evening Post for $300 and then the film rights to it for $2500.

The biography of her brother, Walter Fuller: the Man Who Had Ideas (who was the first BBC employee to edit Radio Times), sets her life in context and adds much information about her family.