The daughter of a school teacher, Mary Ryan was born in Garryhill, Co. Carlow, Ireland in 1898. After leaving school she moved to London where she worked in the Post Office section of the British Civil Service. At a dance in London, she met Stephen Hussey (see previous photo) and they married in 1922.

Mary and Stephen had four daughters, all of whom moved to Dublin in their late teens or early twenties. Mary died in Dublin in 1950, aged only 52, having been taken ill on an extended visit to her daughters.