By 1915, Jack had become involved with Meena Hughes, the estranged wife of musician and Irish song collector Herbert Hughes. She was born Lillian Meacham, in Maidstone, Kent, but had spent most of her teenage years in Cape Town, South Africa, where her father, C.S. Meacham, was brewery manager and corporate chemist for Ohlsson's Brewery. She was given the nickname Meena by Orage, who said that her childhood blond plaits reminded him of Princess Wilhelmina. In her late teens, she returned to London to study piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Her younger sister was Gwendoline Meacham, who became a Scots Nationalist, and changed her name to Wendy Wood.