Margaret Pamela Wilson was born in Liverpool in January 1926, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel Wilson, who served in British India. She spent the first few years of her life in India, returning to Britain in 1930, and was educated at Wycombe Abbey. In 1943 she left school early in order to train as a secretary, and after a year at secretarial college became a shorthand typist in the typing pool of the War Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence from May 1944 until 1946, when she was transferred to the South East Asia field of operations.

After the war, Pamela was posted to New York to work at the UK delegation of the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations, returning to England in 1947 and taking up a post with the Conservative Parliamentary Secretariat (after being interviewed by JEP), where she became JEP's secretary.

Pamela went to work for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg [France] after the 1950 General Election, but continued to visit JEP when he became an MP. They got engaged in November 1951 and were married shortly afterwards at the beginning of January 1952. Pamela returned to work as JEP's secretary and continued to give him her loving help and support throughout their long and happy marriage.

Pamela died on 11 November 2017.