𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄
Freda Marie Houlston was born in a flat above her father's jewellery and watch repair business in Monk Street in Derby. When she was still a baby, the family moved to Littleover, a suburb of Derby.
Freda's father served in the First World War and was enrolled in the Machine Guns Corps. He was killed in northern France on 14 April 1918. Her mother, Nellie, remarried in 1920, to Frank Norman Swan. Freda studied at Hargrave House and then at Parkfields Cedars School, both in Derby. She also spent several months studying at a school in Rheims in northern France.She succeeded in gaining admission to St Hugh's College, Oxford to study French, being awarded an Exhibition or minor scholarship.