Rachel Alida du Toit was born on 15 January 1916 in Petrusburg in the Union of South Africa, into an Afrikaner family. She attended school locally before leaving home to join Paul de Groot's acting company, starting touring at the age of seventeen. Initially, she performed in Afrikaans under the stage name Alida du Toit, but later adopted the name Lydia Lindeque. By 1936, she was a regular performer in Johannesburg, appearing alongside actors like Andre Huguenot. In 1938, she acted in Uys Krige's first play, Magdalena Retief, the first in an increasingly productive collaboration between the two. Her repertoire expanded, and so did her profile. In 1942, she starred in an Afrikanns translation of Ladies in Retirement alongside Berdine Grunwald. The following year, she performed in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, her first performance in English.
