Born in Golders Green, the daughter of Harry Rose, a jeweller turned filmmaker, and Kate Mansell, a Berkeley Square couturier, she grew up in a house overlooking Selfridges and within a family with regular contacts with the aristocracy, artists, actors and actresses.

Educated at The Slade School of Art, she was first to be awarded the Ida Nettleship Scholarship, for ‘Domestic Employment’, a painting of her fellow student Dodie Masterman sewing (pictured right).

Peggy moved to Tite Street in Chelsea where she lived above Adrian Ryan (October 3^rd).  They married in 1941 and moved to Mousehole but, after their divorce, she returned to London and concentrated on picture restoration for which skill she became renowned.