Elizabeth, born in 1887, was a daughter of Kenneth and Elizabeth nee Coombs. Her father was a gamekeeper at Morsgail from 1887 until 1912 and they subsequently lived at Barvas and Eorodale.

Lizzie was a schoolteacher at the time of her marriage, in 1928 in Glasgow, to John Macleod, originally from Cliff but by then a police sergeant in the city.