Pamela Christabel Bourne was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to the Minister of Defence, Sir Roland Murray Bourne, and his wife Lucie. She attended St Hugh's College Oxford University, achieved a Class 4 degree in English in 1930, wrote two books about her travels, and various articles in newspapers. She sailed on the Herzogin Cecilie, a Finnish windjammer, from Australia to Ireland in 1934. She met the captain, Sven Eriksson, and they were married in Finland in 1935. The Herzogin Cecilie was wrecked on the coast of Devon, UK, in April, 1936. They had two children, Sven Cecilie Bourne Eriksson and Freya Irene Eriksson and lived in Aland until the family moved to South Africa in 1945. Sven died from cancer in 1954 and Pamela later returned to their old home in Finland, where she died.