She was born in Tottenham in London as Henrietta Elizabeth Bartlett, the daughter of Sarah Henrietta "née" Field (1851–1918) and Onesimus Smart Bartlett (1848–1921), a solicitor of Bartlett & Roberts who was Town Clerk and Clerk to the Urban Sanitary Authority in Dartmouth in Devon; by 1891 he was Clerk to the Magistrates' Court in Paignton.