She was born in
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, but she was raised in
Wellington, New Zealand from 1884. After leaving school, she became a
shorthand typist for commissions of inquiry and later the
Supreme Court (now the High Court, not to be confused with the present
Supreme Court). Biographers believe this job gave her a wide range of experiences on social issues. She was later a
reporter, businessperson, writer and a campaigner on
sexually transmitted infections. During the Gallipoli campaign, she founded the
New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood, a volunteer nursing group, for women between the ages of 30 and 50. After arriving in Egypt in 1916, Rout was made aware of the prevalence of
STI among servicemen and recommended the use of prophylactic kits and the establishment of inspected brothels. She opened the Tel El Kebir Soldiers' Club, and a canteen at El Qantara to provide better rest and recreation facilities. In June 1917, she went to London to encourage the New Zealand Medical Corps into adopting the prophylactic kits, which she sold these at the New Zealand Medical Soldiers Club, near New Zealand Convalescent Hospital, Hornchurch. In New Zealand, her exploits were considered such that her name, on pain of a
£100 fine, could not be published. However, her activities could be published. In 1922, the
British Medical Journal recommended the book for medical men and women but noted that "many readers will disagree with the author's point of view, and some will feel grave misgivings about the effect of her teaching; but none can doubt the sincerity of her purpose." Rout and her husband Frederick Arthur Hornibrook were members of Arbuthnot Lane's
New Health Society. In her book
Native Diet: With Numerous Practical Recipes, she advocated for the consumption of fish and poultry but not red meat. She argued that people's health would improve if they cut down on coffee and tea and made their own home-brewed ale and beer. ==Death and legacy==