Daughter of Sir Robert and Lady Clara Ho Tung, Jean Gittins was born and educated in Hong Kong. In 1929 she married W. M. (Billy) Gittins, and they had two children. Jean was appointed Secretary of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Hong Kong. As World War II approached the Pacific, their children were sent to Melbourne for safety. When Hong Kong fell, Billy Gittins was taken prisoner of war and transported to Japan, where he died, and Jean was interned for the rest of the war.
After the war Jean, now widowed, came to live in Melbourne. She became secretary of the Dept of Pathology at the University of Melbourne. Her account of her difficulties in settling in Australia and learning to call it home are told in her book A Stranger No More (1987).
