In 1937, at the age of 31, Vera Menchik married Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson (1878-1943), twenty-eight years her senior, who was subscriptions editor of British Chess Magazine, a member of the West London Chess Club, and later honorary secretary of the British Chess Federation.
In 1944 Britain was nearing its sixth year in World War II, and 38-year-old Vera, who was widowed the previous year, still held the title of women's world champion.