Born in
Birkenhead, England in 1902, Smith was the eldest of the politician
F. E. Smith's three children; her mother was Margaret Furneaux, daughter of the academic
Henry Furneaux. Eleanor Smith was great-granddaughter of
Joseph Severn on her mother's side, the Devonshire Furneaux, a
Norman family. Her brother was
Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, and her sister
Lady Pamela married
Hon. Michael Berry. Her father was created
Earl of Birkenhead in 1922. She went to Miss Douglas's
Queen's Gate School. At Queen's Gate she met Lady
Allanah Harper,
Zita Jungman, and
Teresa "Baby" Jungman and together they became early members of what the British press would call the "
Bright Young Things", a nickname given by the
tabloid press to a group of
bohemian young
aristocrats and
socialites in 1920s
London. As a young girl, she spent time among her father's friends and fellow politicians and their children, including the
Churchills,
Guests,
Grenfells, Duffs, and many others. This influenced Smith to become a life-long supporter of the
Conservative Party. Smith's paternal great-grandmother, Bathsheba, was said to have been a Gypsy, and this sparked an early fascination with local
Romani people, but she credits a book called
Lavengro as being one of the greatest influences of her life-long fascination with Gypsies and
their culture. She went so far as to learn to read and speak the
Romani language, which she called "musical and broken." When she was living in London, Smith had an encounter with Daniel "Kid Spider" Rosenthal, where he called her from his hotel asking her to meet him for lunch to discuss business. Mistaking him for a "film man", she agreed, but this was untrue and he later went to her home and threatened to kill her, and harassed her with marriage proposals until she went to
Scotland Yard. They informed her that he was wanted for the murder of his father. Smith travelled extensively throughout her life, and she was arrested twice, once in Romania for having her career listed as "journalist" on her passport, and once in
Rome for walking around in a sleeveless dress. ==Career==