Ethel Tory was born on 27 July 1912 in Subiaco, Western Australia. Her parents were Frank Bertram Tory, a legal manager and estate agent, originally from Blandford, Dorset and Ethel Marion Victoria Johnson, born in Guildford, Western Australia. Tory enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Australia in 1933, after spending two years living with family in Dorset and in Grand Luce, Sarthe in France. She graduated with Honours in French in 1936, added an Honours in Latin in 1938 and completed a Diploma of Education in 1939. During the war, she was employed in the Censor's Office in the Department of Information to scan mail in French and Latin and as a secondary school teacher. In 1941 she won the Hackett Research Scholarship from the University of Western Australia which allowed her to conduct research into French literature.

In 1946 she was appointed Tutor in French at the University of Western Australia and lecturer in Latin in 1947. In 1947, Tory was awarded a French government scholarship and attended the University of Paris (La Sorbonne) where she obtained the Diplôme de littérature française contemporaine (mention honorable) in 1948. She stayed in France for the next ten years teaching and translating, and undertaking research for her doctoral thesis resulting in the award of Docteur de l’université (mention très honorable) from the University of Paris in 1961.

In February 1961 she commenced as a lecturer in French in the School of General Studies at the Australian National University, where she was promoted to Senior Lecturer in July 1965 and served as Acting Head of the Department of Modern Languages in 1969 and again from 1974 to 1975 when it was the Department of Romance Languages. In 1970, she published an edition of Giraudoux’s play Intermezzo for use in schools and universities. Tory retired in 1977 but continued to teach French and to support drama studies at the Australian National University through donations. The EE Tory Endowment was established to support academics and students in drama and language through her bequest to the ANU on her death in 2003.