 The only daughter of businessman Sir Robert Harvey and Franco-Peruvian Alida María Godefroy, Alida was born in Iquique (then in Peru), where her father made millions as a saltpetre producer.Her maternal grandfather was Émile Godefroy of Pessac, Bordeaux.In 1885, the family returned to Cornwall, where her father purchased the Trenoweth estate and several properties in nearby Devon.