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Early life and education
Meeson was born in 1869 to John and Amelia Meeson (née Kipling) in Hawthorn, Victoria. Her father was the founder and headmaster of the Hawthorn Grammar School. The family emigrated to London in 1876, and following her father's admittance to the Bar, migrated to New Zealand c. 1879.

While studying at the Canterbury College School of Art, Meeson was witness to the suffrage movement and signed the petition which was forwarded to the New Zealand Parliament.

The family returned to Melbourne in 1895, enabling Meeson to study at the National Gallery School. While a student there, Meeson met her future husband, George Coates. Coates and Meeson both contended for a scholarship to study at the Académie Julian in Paris. Ultimately, Coates received the scholarship and Meeson did not, and her family financed her studies in Paris.

In 1903, Meeson and Coates were married in London, but had difficulties breaking into the art world there, and early on gained income through producing small illustrations for encyclopedias.

Career
Meeson and Coates conducted their art careers in England. In 1903 they were employed as illustrators for the Encyclopedia Brittanica, together earning six pounds a year.