Katherine Moira Goodall was born in Morningside, Edinburgh, on 18th June 1914, the second child and daughter of Robert Moir Davie and Ella McLellan Davie. A few months later, at the onset of World War I, the family went to live with the maternal grandfather, John McLellan, retired Assistant Manager of Woodilee Hospital Farm, and his wife Elizabeth Watt McLellan, in Port Glasgow, where Moira's Father was directed for war work.

At the end of the war the family moved to Ilford on the north-east outskirts of London where Robert, a Chartered Accountant from Glasgow University, hoped to improve the family fortunes; this hope, however, disappeared in the Wall Street crash of 1927.

In spite of this reversal in the family affairs, Moira enjoyed a happy childhood, being very involved in Girl Guiding, having many friends in that organisation and at school, and where latterly she was Captain of the school tennis team. Later she played tennis at County level and reached the quarter-finals of a National tournament.

On leaving school at the age of 18, Moira trained at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in Buckingham Road, London, and subsequently was employed by the local gas company (before the utility was nationalised) as a cookery demonstrator and advisor.