 The daughter of Thomas Farrer, 2nd Baron Farrer (a senior civil servant) and his first wife, Evelyn Spring Rice, Frances ran the office on civil service lines.Meriel Withall, one of her successors said ""it was a model of [good] government"".Partly through her family connections she had a network of contacts which were very useful to NFWI as the organisation became increasingly active in lobbying government.