Pretty, fashionable and middle-class, Francesca worked as a typist in London and had a keen interest in amateur dramatics and a fine singing voice.

• An avid reader of novels - with a taste for the fantastic - she was a fan of Nathaniel Browne's work before meeting him aboard the Viceroy of India (where she was travelling with her friend Patricia Berry to holiday with relatives in India).

• After this encounter Francesca and Nathaniel became inseparable and its was clear to all who knew them that they were quickly falling in love.

• Nathaniel married Francesca after his return from Drakmar, in 1931, and two had their only child, Andrew Frederick Browne, in 1937. Francesca died during a blitz raid in 1941.