Thanks to Captain Pegg & RayT for their explanations.
From memory her early life afloat was with horse boats.
She, her parents, and her siblings are the subject of the biography "A Horse A Boat And you". It gives a very good insight to those born on the boats, and who stayed with them to the very end of long distance carrying.
She could hardly have been more embedded in the boating tradition. Two of her sisters, Vera and Ann married Ken Ward and Ted Ward, who were themselves brothers, although I am fairly certain she has outlived all of these.
I didn't know her well, but did converse with her from time to time. Her brother-in-law Ken Ward and her sister Vera Ward (nee Wain) operated our boat FLAMINGO for Willow Wren CTS in the late 1960s.