Martha Büchel was born Martha Clara Caselton in London (England) on October 9, 1875. At the age of 28, she met her future husband, the cabinetmaker Georg Friedrich Büchel. In the ten years following their marriage in 1904, they had six children together. The family first lived in London, later in East England. After the First World War, the family moved to Germany in 1919, as Georg had been imprisoned in a camp during the war because of his German origins and no longer received any orders after the end of the war. After a short time in North Rhine-Westphalia, the family moved to Stöckte near Winsen on the Elbe. Daughters Gladys and May found work as maids for a vet and in the household of the Weseloh family (owners of the jam and canning factory »Winsenia«, later Schwartau). When they moved to Germany, Martha became ill. She developed anxiety. In 1932, after running away several times and seeking shelter with a »Landjäger«, she was taken by her daughters to the Lüneburg institution and nursing home. From there, nine years later, she was transferred to the Herborn intermediate care facility on April 9, 1941 and to the Hadamar killing center on May 12, 1941.
