 The elder daughter of Henry Hartley Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton, Ellen was born at Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, on 9 April 1860.Her younger sister, Edith Henrietta Fowler (16 February 1865 – 18 November 1944), was also a writer.On 16 April 1903, Ellen married Alfred Felkin, a senior teacher at the Royal Naval School at Mottingham near Eltham.