 Roberta Cowell was born Robert Marshall Cowell, one of three children of Major-General Sir Ernest Marshall Cowell KBE CB (1886–1971) and Dorothy Elizabeth Miller (1886–1962).Sir Ernest was a prominent surgeon who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and became a surgeon at Croydon General Infirmary between the wars.During the Second World War, he again served in the army and was the Director of Medical Services for Allied forces in North Africa from 1942 to 1944.