Monique Lilly de La Pasture was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the 7th April 1869. Her mother Leontine, nee Standish and known as Lilly, died the following day, 8th April, from complications after childbirth. She was 26. Monique’s father, Gerard Gustavus Ducarel, Marquis de la Pasture is shown on her birth certificate as ‘gentleman’ but on Lilly’s death certificate as ‘sheep farmer’. The Marquis remarried on the 20 May 1873 Georgiana Mary Loughnan, the daughter of Robert James Loughnan and they had four further children Charles Edward, Helene Marie, Marguerite Marie and Gerard Hubert. The family returned to the UK and lived at Caley Hall, Pool-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire. Monique married Charles Edward Nicholas Charrington on the 19th March 1889, at the Church of Sacred Heart, Steyning, Hove, Sussex.

Their only daughter Dorothea was born the following year.