Born in Petersham, Sydney, to Alfred Percival Bedford and Agnes Victoria Stephen, daughter of Sir Alfred Stephen, an influential chief justice, whose family she wrote about in her humorous book A Family Chronicle (1954).

Bedford proved a talented verse writer from an early age: her first book, Rhymes by Ruth was published when she was eleven years old in 1893 (revised and reprinted 1896).

[2] Bedford wrote a number of poems for various Australian newspapers, especially The Sydney Morning Herald, where her poetry appeared over a 30-year period.

"[3] In 1931, Ruth Bedford established the Sydney PEN Centre in collaboration with her friend, the poet Dorothea Mackellar.

[5] Bedford was also honorary secretary of the Zonta Club in Sydney in 1933[6] and a member of the Women's Pioneer Society.