Born in Diss, Norfolk, in 1883, Ethel Clara Le Neve was one of six children born to Walter and Charlotte Neve. When she was seven, the family moved to London. Of her earliest years, Ethel writes in her 1911 memoirs, "I distinguished myself by my tomboy pranks...At that time my chief companion was my uncle, who was on the railway. Nothing delighted him more than to take me to see the trains, and even to this day there are few things that interest me more than an engine. How he used to laugh when he saw me climbing trees, or playing marbles, or shooting with a catapult. For dolls or other girlish toys I had no longing."
But, underneath the dirty cheeks of a tomboy a sentimental girl blossomed, dreaming of far-off places and knights in shining armor, wise to the world and sturdy. Once she attained independence, she glamorized her name with a Gallic flourish -- to Le Neve. It was this romantic disposition that led her to admire then fall in love with Crippen's noble maturity, something that boys her age lacked. She sailed for America on 23rd November 1910, the day Crippen was hanged.
