"I was born on May 1st, 1893, at 53, Clyde Road, Brighton, and soon became aware of my brother Frank looking at me from his cot, no doubt. He was born on January 29th, 1892, and from now on we were almost inseparable companions until our marriages, both in the same year. So there we were - a compact little family, Papa, Mama, 'Pannie' and me. At that time Teddie was but a shadowy figure, he was living at Grandma Donovan's (owing, no doubt, to Mama's youth and inexperience). When I was a year old we moved to 48, Chester Terrace, and it is from there that my memories begin; my earliest recollection is of sleeping in the same cot as Frank, one 'up' and the other 'down', so that we each had the width of the bed. We had measles at the same time, and squabbled over the hand-mirror, in which to see our spots. I learned to walk and talk; though throughout my young life, was seldom allowed to speak, as my small voice could not compete with those of my noisy brothers. Consequently, I came to accept my position of stooge to the boys, who teased me unmercifully most of the time..."

(Grace Donovan's Memoir)

"The contrast between my two grandfathers can hardly have been greater. Each married 'above his station' but even these stations were dissimilar. Grandpa Thomas Donovan, in appearance very like Charles Dickens, wore a top hat, owned a photographic studio at 1c St James's Street, Brighton. When young he had been a member of a Youth Orchestra which had been summoned to play before the Queen at Buckingham Palace. His bride, Victoria Gibbons, was disowned by her family (who were connected with the Welsh peerage) when she married him. Grandpa William Nathan Greenfield wore a flat cap and toiled in the bakehouse beneath his baker's shop in Kingsbury Road, making bread and cakes to stock the shop. He had been the boy who carried sacks of flour to and from the mill at Hurstmonceux. Harriet Martin was the daughter of the miller - a person of some note in the Sussex village. That worthy man must have overcome his dismay at the prospect for his daughter, for the young couple were married, and installed in a confectionery business in Ringmer. Here were born two sons and five daughters, one of whom was to become my mother. After some years at Ringmer they moved to Brighton, where my parents met..."

(Grace Donovan's Memoir)