Lady Catherine Waverly was a 20th century Earth human. She was politically active and long involved with the women's liberation movement, at a time when that required compromising with men in power.
The Waverly family were old friends of Ian Gilmore.
She was unable to have children. Her husband, Charles Waverly, "volunteered" her for a eugenics programme to create advanced soldiers; the resulting child, Emma Waverly, was largely kept away from her. Charles also had a large number of affairs in later years but the Waverlys lived together for appearances.
In July 1965, she found what her husband had done to Emma and murdered him for it. She hid the guilt.
She still returned to Westminster a day after the funeral to see a friend be appointed to Lords. Templeton would patronise her in 1965 that if her father hadn't died in 1953 (ten years before peerage laws changed), she'd have inherited his seat in the House of Lords; she put him down sharply and expressed displeasure with how few female politicians there were. Lady Catherine and Sir Toby Kinsella noted the new MP Margaret Thatcher.
After the funeral, she learned that Emma was capable of shapeshifting into a male form and was mentally unstable, and eventually came clean to Gilmore about the situation. Afterwards, she handed documents on her husband's co-conspirators to Sir Toby - which included his own name. She then allegedly committed suicide because of her guilt, with Sir Toby as the only witness. (AUDIO: Manhunt) Later, Rachel Jensen challenged Sir Toby about whether it was suicide or murder. He ducked the issue. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father)