When Irene Isabel Lewis was born on 27 May 1896, in Saint Catherine, Jamaica, her father, Joshua Charles McFarlane Lewis, was 34 and her mother, Arabella Sinclair Lewis, was 37. She married Christopher Benjamin Samuda on 19 November 1924, in Jamaica. They were the parents of at least 4 sons. She died on 26 January 1970, in Spanish Town, Saint Catherine, Jamaica, at the age of 73.