Laura started working for Lady Duff Gordon as a secretary and assistant around 1909.  Lady Duff Gordon generally referred to her as "Franks".  Her younger  sister, Dorothy (known as Phyllis) became a model for Lucile Ltd, Duff  Gordon's fashion business around the same time.

Laura Mabel boarded Titanic as secretary to Lady Duff-Gordon. On the night of the sinking, she woke her employers after water seeped into her cabin following the collision.

"...  A man came to me and put a life preserver on me assuring me it was only  taking precautions and not to be alarmed... When we got on the top  deck, the lifeboats were being lowered on the starboard side... I then  noticed that the sea was nearer to us than during the day, and I said to  Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon 'We are sinking' and he said 'Nonsense, come  away'."

She escaped on boat 1 along with her employer and Lord Duff-Gordon. 

She spent much of her life in New York after the disaster but returned to Englad in 1954 a widow.