 She was the wife of Patrick Gilroy, and the mother of academic Paul Gilroy, and Darla Gilroy.Beryl Gilroy was born in Skeldon, Berbice, Guyana.She grew up in a large, extended family, largely under the influence of her maternal grandmother, Sally Louisa James (1868–1967), a herbalist, who managed the family small-holding, was a keen reader and imparted to the young Beryl stories of "Long Bubbies", Cabresses and Long Lady and a treasury of colloquial Guyanese proverbs.