Dorothy Hawkings was born in China and worked as a teacher in the Cathedral School for Girls in Shanghai during the late 1930s. In early 1940, she travelled to Malaya, opening the Tanglin Nursery in the Cameron Highlands, which was owned by Miss Griffith-Jones. She met the planter Peter de Lucy, who managed the Amherst Rubber Estate near Kuala Lumpur. They married in Singapore in 1941. Following the outbreak of war with Japan, Dorothy joined the Voluntary Aid Division of the Army Nursing Corps and was posted to the Alexandra Hospital at Singapore. Peter served with the Armoured Car Division of the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force. On 12 Feb. Dorothy was evacuated by ship from Singapore, reaching India via Batavia, where she served in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps. In 1942 Dorothy worked as a cypher officer in Colombo, Ceylon [Sri Lanka], and then was commissioned into the Royal Indian Navy, serving on the Women’s Selection Board. Peter was captured following the fall of Singapore and was a prisoner of war with the Japanese for three and a half years. The couple returned to Malaya in July 1946. During the Malayan Emergency of the early 1950s they departed for Tanganyika, where Peter worked on a sisal estate until 1961, when the family returned to Britain. Peter became a stockbroker in London and Dorothy was active in voluntary work and served as a County Councillor for Kent.