Maud was a daughter of Edward Smallwood Richards (1833-1917) & Eliza Meredith (1842-1923) from Camberwell, Surrey who married on 9 Nov 1859 at sea on board the 'Nournahal' on their way to NZ. Her father was a photographer in Wellington, in partnership with William Batt. They later settled in Masterton and kept a boarding house