Woodhead was born in
Brighton in 1864. Her father was a Major, an agent for the navy, and he and Emily (born Clements) Woodhead had eleven children (One source says 12). Grace was the penultimate. She attended the
local high school for girls (now
Brighton Girls) before going on to
Lady Margaret Hall in 1883 in the company of her younger sister, Hilda. She left university in 1885. In 1895 she was living in London and she was concerned by the treatment of people with learning disabilities. At the time the default solution was to place them in institutions. Woodhead arranged for them to have holidays in
Heathfield, East Sussex using, at times, her home in Hove. In the 1920s they bought two farms in Sussex so that men could learn rural skills. These farms operated until 1959. ==Death and legacy==