The three sisters lived with their parents John and Jane Kershaw in St John's Wood--a leafy suburb of London. Evelyn was the eldest; Ruth and Joanne were the youngest. Their father was an industrialist and owned an engineering company, which had been handed down from two generations to John Kershaw, who was third generation. He was proud of its history of being one of the forerunners in the industry. Times were now changing in England after the Second World War. "The war to end all wars," said the then government of the day. It had indeed made John Kershaw's family very wealthy indeed. Evelyn and Ruth had an idyllic upbringing and could pursue their ambitions after all their socializing was finished. The family's fortune allowed them to go to a private girl's school, which their mother had attended years earlier.