Dr Mabel Palmer (nee Mabel Atkinson) was born on 22 May 1876 near Stocksfield in Northumberland, England. Her father, J.B. Atkinson, was a mine inspector, and her mother, Jane Atkinson, a militant suffragette. Her mother’s activism most likely had an impact on young Palmer, who would later become a prominent feminist campaigner.

Frances Rix Ames was born in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng), on 20 April 1920. Her father deserted the family when she was still an infant, leaving her mother, a nursing sister, penniless, to raise three daughters on her own.