She was born in Dublin, the daughter of Ella Flora, née Mayne (1828–1907) and Maurice Keatinge (1816–1896). He was the son of Alexander Trotter (1804–1865), a banker by his second wife, Isabella Strange (1816–1878) daughter of Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange.
On 30 June 1886, at Street James church, Paddington, Alys married Alexander Pelham Trotter MICE Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers FPS (1857–1947). Whilst living there Alys and Alexander explored the Cape and Alys wrote and illustrated "Old cape Colony: a chronicle of her men and houses from 1652 to 1806". Some of Trotter"s drawings are now in the William Fehr Collections in South Africa.
See, for example, Head of a Labourer, Pressing Grapes, Old House at Stellenbosch.
When they returned to England they lived at Teffont Evias. Trotter wrote poetry and was published in periodicals including Punch and the Cornhill Magazine.
Nigel was killed in action on 12 October 1914 at Louisiana Fosse, near Vielle Chapelle, Bethune:
The ground over which the British had to advance was intersected by small irrigation canals crossed by plank bridges, on which the officers and men offered a good target. Lieutenant Trotter is believed to have been first hit while crossing one of these bridges, and after advancing three-quarters of a mile fell with two more wounds.
His death influenced her writing, and her poetry reflected on her life with Nigel and her loss.
Her poem collections were: "Nigel, and other verses" by published by Burns & Oates in 1918. And "Houses and Dreams" published by Blackwell, Oxford in 1924. Trotter also continued drawing and painting: see for example "7th Century Chinese Bowl"
Trotter died on 21 December 1961 at Greystones in Teffont Evias.
Her daughter Gundred married Horace Courthope Beck Federal Security Agency, an archaeologist.
Her father"s brother was Lieutenant-General Her husband"s sister was the missionary Isabel Lilias Trotter.
And Jacqueline Theodora Trotter (see above) was the daughter of his step-brother Colonel Sir Henry Trotter Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George Central Bank.
