Digby was born in 1900 into the class of British colonial civil servants and engineers which by the time of her death in 1960 was fast disappearing.
Violet Digby and her two elder brothers were taught to draw and paint by their father William, who was a skilled draftsman, designer and engineer.
Her paintings were accepted at the annual exhibitions of The Pastel Society, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London.
There is an archive of her work and papers held by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
[1] The first major exhibition of her work[3] since her death in 1960 took place at the cultural wing of the Indian High Commission, the Nehru Centre, London in April 2016.
Violet Margaret Kidd was born in Plymouth in 1900 where her Scottish father was working on the expansion of the naval dockyard.
Violet's fragmented education continued with spells at Farlington School and helping her father at the aircraft factory.
[1] The many surviving letters addressed to Violet after the war suggest that she was the object of a number of suitors in her busy schedule of art school, golf, tennis, skiing, dancing and everything else 'roaring twenties'.
He proposed many times to Violet who finally accepted him in 1926 while on the rebound from a long and turbulent relationship that ended badly.
[1] Violet Digby returned to the lifestyle of a senior Memsahib of the Raj and went back to painting as her leisure pursuit.
She spent much of the Second World War in India, concerned with the 'Hospitality League' organising holidays for British soldiers and sailors based in the east.
Digby continued to enjoy the favour of the new Indian ruling class, she was a guest of President Rajendra Prasad at his Republic Day 'at home' on her return to India in 1958.
[18] Her brother Lewis and sister-in-law Enid, her childhood friend, advised her to join them in Jersey,[19] where the tax regime was more favourable.