Ann Lingard grew up in Cornwall and was educated at Truro High School; she read Zoology at the University of London's Bedford College (when it was situated in the semi-rural surroundings of Regent's Park), and then moved to Cambridge to work for her doctorate at the Molteno Institute, the University's Department of Parasitology. After completing her PhD she became a Research Fellow at New Hall and was employed in a teaching and research post at the Molteno.