Pamela Drew was born in Burnley and studied at the Grovesnor School of Modern Art in London and later in Paris. During the war she served with the Wrens, working with RAF Coastal Command in Plymouth. Her association with the air force led to a commission to record the activities of the RAF in Kenya and the Middle East such as flight servicing, forest patrols, aircraft refuelling and re-arming and tracker-dog searches; these works are now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London.