Her father, Nevil Story Maskelyne, was a politician and a professor of mineralogy at Oxford and her mother, Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn of Penllergare House, was a leading scientist studying astronomy and photography.

[1] Rucker was granddaughter of the Welsh botanist and photographer John Dillwyn Llewelyn and a great-granddaughter of Nevil Maskelyne, who served as Astronomer Royal.

[1] She married on 7 September 1892 becoming the second wife of Arthur William Rücker who was the Principal of the University of London.

[3] In 1908 hygiene lecturer Alice Ravenhill, Hilda D. Oakeley and Rucker created a home science course at King's College, London in the Women's Department.

[4] By 1920 it was a subject for a degree and in 1928 the King's College of Household and Social Science was formed to further their initial idea.