Ellen Wilkes was born on 1 January 1850 and lived for the first half of her long life in Birmingham. She had seven children, six of whom were still living by 1911 when she was a boarding-house keeper in Lansdowne Road, Handsworth, Birmingham. At some time in the next five years she came to live in Stoneleigh with her daughter Gertrude Grace Dexter (see B5.4) when Grace (as she was known) was steward of Finham Golf Club. They both lived at Finham Green in 1939. She died on 12 February 1952, aged 102.