Valerie Hicks grew up in the Perth suburb of Peppermint Grove. She served in the medical section of the Women's Australian Auxiliary Airforce during the second world war and trained as a nurse in Melbourne while attending the Melbourne Coservatorium of Music. After her marriage to Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks in 1948 she moved to Adelaide where she studied art and music and sang with the ABC. In 1982, six years after her husband's death, Lady Hicks returned to live in Western Australia .
