Nellie, nee Samuel, was born on the 2nd of July 1883. Her mother was Fanny Elizabeth Benjamin and her father Sir Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, born 5th November 1853 in London. His father, Marcus Samuel, born 4th April 1799, opened a small curiosity shop near the Tower of London in 1833 with the name of “The Shell Shop”. Amongst the antiques and other things that he sold there were exotic shells from the east. These shells often adorned the small boxes and pots so popular in the Victorian epoch. The trade in shells grew to be so lucrative that it gave rise to an import/export business with the Far East.
When he died in on the 24th of November 1873 at the age of 73 the business was very succesful and was continued by his son Samuel, Nellie’s father.
In 1878 Marcus began to trade in barrels of crude oil. In 1890, travelling through the Black Sea port of  Batum on business, he realised that the port of Constantinople (Istanbul) was full of oil tankers, and that there was more money in oil than shells and so ordered the construction of eight tankers, and so began the Shell Oil Company, still active today which he founded. Its logo, that peculiar shell, is one of the best known commercial symbols in the world. He became Baron, Viscount, Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London in 1902 and 1903. He left three children, of whom Nellie was the second daughter.
Nellie was married on the 7th of April 1903, to the mayor Walter Henry Levy and had a daughter, Jessel and a son, Jack. She may have had another child. Walter died on the 9th of June 1923.
The widowed Nellie remarried on the 23rd May 1923 to Basil Ionides, the architect responsible for the purchase and restoration of Buxted Place in 1931. Now known as Buxted Park the house dates from 1199, with the present Georgian house being built in 1725. It was restored and remodelled in 1940 after being damaged by fire. Surrounded by gardens and lakes it was famous for its trees. The hurricane of 1987 however blew down many of the most outstanding trees. It was a favourite of Queen Victoria, and Nellie was a close friend of Queen Mary with whom she shared a passion for searching out art works. The collection is now in Orleans House.
Animals were another passion, and she kept Hackney horses, black and white Jacob sheep, pigs and so on. As far as pedigree dogs were concerned, her early interest was in Griffons, and she also bred a few Cairns. But it is for Poodles, and specially Standards, that her two affixes will be forever associated.