Eva Ellen Marie Matthews was born on 1th May 1896 in Burgess Hill, Sussex, the youngest of ten children of Frederick George Matthews (1852-1896) and Charlotte Matilda Elliott (1855-1929). Frederick and Charlotte had been married for 23 years by that time, and their eldest son Charles was already 22 years old. Four other brothers and four sisters preceded Eva, although one of these siblings, Frederick George Edward Matthews had died in infancy. Eva never knew her father, as he died of liver cancer when she was less than three weeks old on 1st June 1896.

Eva's mother Charlotte was left to raise her children alone. On the 1901 Census she is shown living at Franklands Cottage in Keymer, Sussex, with sons John and Owen and daughters Violet and Eva. Charlotte was working as a charwomen to support her family. In 1904 Eva's mother re-married, her new husband being Richard Berry, a builders labourer. 

By 1911 the extended family had moved 10 miles south to Brighton, living at 33 New York Street in the New England area of the town. Eva was not shown with an occupation but at the age of fifteen she was probably helping her mother to look after her niece, Marion Young, the daughter of her sister Marion who had died four years previously.