Monica le Doux Newton was born in Belper, Derbyshire, the daughter of a country clergyman. She attended Wakefield High School for Girls before the family moved south to the small fishing village of Rye Harbour on the Sussex coast. Her brothers and elder sister were placed in education, but somehow the young Monica escaped. For a year or so she 'ran wild' on the marshes and around the little fishing harbour.She married Bill Edwards, a local man, in Rye Harbour Church in 1933 and they lived for a few years in the marsh country nearby.