Background and Early Life
She was born in Rue Violet, Paris. Baseden's father was a World War I pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. He crash landed in France at the home of the Comte de Vibraye, where he was invited by the Comtesse to have dinner. Whilst at the dinner he met and fell in love with the daughter of the Comte and Comtesse. The couple went on to marry and lived in France following the end of the War. The family travelled and lived around Europe, so as a result Baseden was educated at schools in England, France, Poland, Italy and Spain and in addition to being bi-lingual (English/French) she also spoke a basic level of many other languages. In 1937 the family moved to London, where they settled in Tottenham. Baseden was uninterested in school and left school aged 16 to work apple picking in Bedfordshire. In 1939, before the outbreak of war, she moved to Southampton where she worked as a bi-lingual shorthand typist in an Engineering firm.
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