Eleanor Mary Charles nee MacFarlane was born on 28 December 1862, and baptised on 20 January 1863, in Llandilofawr, Carmarthenshire. She was the third of twelve children .Her father, a Scot, was Thomas MacFarlane ,who was initially a schoolmaster, and her mother was Eleanor Susan nee Christie. Thomas later took Holy Orders and became the Vicar of Clyro in Radnorshire.
In a long letter to his sister in 1882, Thomas refers to his eldest daughter Mary being "near the borders of Russia", where she had gone to perfect her German language skills. This seems to be Eleanor, who was apparently known by the family as Mary. By 1891, however, she is described in that year's census as a trained sick nurse.
On 3 October 1893 Eleanor married James Thomas Walter Charles, a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserves, and whose father was a land agent. Eleanor's father helped officiate at the wedding, which was at St Paul's Brixton. James was already a junior officer for the British India line, and two years later was to begin service with the Cunard fleet, with which he remained until his death. He commanded all the principal ships in the Cunard Line, including the Lusitania and the Mauretania.
The extent to which Eleanor accompanied her husband on his voyages is unclear; she does not appear in either the 1901 or 1911 census. During the Great War he transported thousands of troops from the USA to Europe, for which he was knighted in 1920. Eleanor thus became Lady Charles.
By the 1920s she was resident in Southampton, and her husband was made Commodore of the Cunard Line in 1921. A hugely popular man, his death came, tragically, on the occasion of his final voyage. Whilst Eleanor awaited his arrival at Southampton dockside, he had been taken ill on board the Aquitania, apparently from the emotional distress of retiring from the career he loved. He was taken to a local nursing home on arrival but died ten minutes later. Amidst great mourning, Eleanor received a message of sympathy from the Prince of Wales; her husband's funeral, at Netley in Hampshire, was attended by 1000 mourners.
Subsequently Eleanor moved to Weston-super-Mare, and travelled widely during the 1930s. Her sister Gwendoline Howell died in 1938, residing at Five Beeches, Stoneleigh Road. She is buried at
B. 2.5 in the churchyard. Eleanor may have come to live with her sister, because in the following year she was living in Binswood Avenue, Leamington, with Gwendoline's daughter - her niece, Mary Cecilia Howell, who was an unmarried schoolteacher.
Eleanor died on 24 February 1953 whilst living at 42, Styvechale Croft in Coventry, presumably still with her niece, who was granted probate. Her headstone is an impressive monument, being similarly hewn in rough stone as her sister's is.