Margaret Bryan was born 26 September 1929, the daughter of James Grant and Dorothy Rebecca Galloway. She was educated at the Cathedral School, Shanghai, and was interned in China during the war, then after the war studied at Croydon High School and Girton College, University of Cambridge (taking an MA in Modern Languages). In 1952, she married Peter Bernard Bryan (the marriage was dissolved in 1981).

Margaret Bryan's career included: News Information Department, BBC, c. 1952-53; locally-engaged assistant at the British Consulate, Douala [Cameroon], c. 1953-55; journalist for the Windhoek Advertiser. South West Africa [later Namibia], c. 1957-61; Second, later First, Secretary, Information Research Department Africa desk, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1962–80; Head of Chancery and Consul, Kinshasa [Zaire, later Democratic Republic of the Congo], 1980–83; Counsellor and Head of Chancery, Havana [Cuba], 1983–86; Ambassador to Panama, 1986–89; Research Department, FCO, 1989-94; Sensitivity Review Team, FCO, 1994-2009.