Ethel Baxter was the daughter of a ploughman, Andrew Adam, and his wife Elizabeth Farquar. Born in Roseisle, Moray, Ethel left the family farm to train as a nurse and, in 1914, married William Baxter, one of her patients. William’s parents, George and Margaret Baxter, owned a grocery shop in Fochabers though which they sold Margaret’s jams and marmalades. Seeing an opportunity to expand this business, Ethel persuaded her husband to open a factory in 1916 and while William travelled as a salesman for the business, Ethel managed the factory.