Jean Constance Craig (later Kilminster) was born in 1915. She began her training as a nurse in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1935, and upon its completion during World War II she served with the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Reserve. At the end of the War in 1945 she went on to work at Halton, until 1947 when she resigned to get married. Until her retirement in 1970 she worked at various hospitals in England, becoming Branches Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing in 1958.