Megan Boyd was born Rosina Megan Boyd on 29 January 1915 in Surrey, England. She was the youngest of three children. In 1918 her father moved the family to the Scottish Highlands to take a job as a bailiff or river watcher on the River Brora on the Duke of Sutherland's sporting estate. She attended local schools until she was 15 when she took her first fly tying work. During World War II she held various jobs including delivering milk and duties as an auxiliary coast watcher. Boyd was described as full of energy and a much-loved local figure in Brora. Country dancing was her favorite relaxation and she took an active role in helping the old and disabled locally. Considered eccentric by some, Boyd dressed in men's clothes, with man's shirt and tie, sport jacket and heavy army-style boots. She cut her own hair in a very short crop known as the Eton Crop.
