The political connections of her paternal side were impressive. Two of her paternal grandmother's sisters were married to the MPs Charles Edward Henry Hobhouse and Leonard Henry Courtney, Baron Courtney. Another great-aunt, Beatrice, was married to Sidney Webb, who served with her grandfather Lord Parmoor in the first Labour Government, in 1924, and was Secretary of State for the Colonies in the second Labour government in 1929, where he served in cabinet with Lord Parmoor, as Lord President of the Council, and was joined later by Stafford, as Solicitor General. (It was at this time that her father was knighted.). Through her maternal ancestor Admiral George Winthrop, she was descended from the Winthrop family of Boston Brahmins in British North America.