Mrs Alexander was born in Brunswick, Germany in 1920. After her parents decided she should leave Germany she arrived in England in 1936, where she did a two year dressmaking course at Barrett Street Trade School. Her father had been a judge in Germany and then a partner in a family oil and flour milling firm, but was then sent to a concentration camp for a short while before coming to England in 1938, where he worked as a waiter in Lyons before setting up his own company. The family were evacuated to Bedfordshire, from where Mrs Alexander would travel to London for work in London. Initially she worked as an assistant pattern cutter for thirty shillings a week for Silhouette DeLuxe, then part time as a designer for Madame Bery, as this was during wartime and she had to work 4 days a week in an aircraft factory. Mrs Alexander married in 1946, had two daughters and from 1951 worked for County Sports for 26 years.