Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White was born in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1914, where she grew up and received her early education. She began studying art at the University of Natal in 1932, and was granted a scholarship to continue her art studies at the Royal College of Art in London from 1935 until 1936. While in London, she worked on a commission to decorate the walls of the new South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square with Le Roux Smith Le Roux. Following the completion of the mural and her art studies, she received the Herbert Baker Scholarship to study mural painting in London. Full biography