Ellie Vickers (nee Bourdillon) grew up in Oxford, in a home which frequently played host to members of the Oxford Group. At the age of just 14, in 1940, she was evacuated by ship to Canada, as part of a group of children whose families were connected with Oxford university. She was not accompanied by any of her family. She was to spend the next six years in North America, first at school in Toronto and then working with Moral Re-Armament in many parts of the US. She also undertook secretarial training, in Richmond, Va.
Ellie and John Vickers both continued their full-time MRA work for 13 years after their marriage, living and working in London, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and visiting several other countries. Despite having two young daughters, they as yet had no home of their own. In 1960 they made the big decision to move to Leeds, so that John could enter the family textile oil and lubricants business. Ellie brought up their three children in the home they bought in Leeds, and also took a role as a non-executive director in the Vickers family business, to which she brought a sharp intellect and sensitivity, to support John’s work as Chairman and Managing Director.
