[3] She was the daughter of Major Claude Beddington and Frances Ethel (née Homan-Mulock).

Ethel was the daughter of a Protestant family from County Offaly, whose homes included the Bellair and Ballycumber estates, where Lady Powerscourt spent most of her childhood summer holidays.

Her cousins included the Jewish literary figures Violet Schiff and Ada Leverson, and her grandfather was born Alfred Henry Moses.

They had three children, a daughter and two sons: Grania Langrishe, Mervyn and Guy Wingfield.

[7] Although initially supportive, her husband later requested her not to be involved in the literary circle in Ireland.

This is despite the admiration of Elizabeth Bowen, W. B. Yeats, John Betjeman, T. S. Eliot and James Stephens.

She became the leader of Irish Girl Guides and helped catalogue the Chester Beatty Library.

In 1963 she left her husband and, as a result of the financial impact, the family sold Powerscourt.