The couple together edited four books on India's struggle for Independence. This was another bond with BPL Bedi, who became a keen communist and opponent of Empire. She attended meetings of the Oxford Majlis, where nationalist-minded Indian students gathered, as well as of the communist October Club and the Labour Club. Whilst at Oxford Freda became involved in politics. Romance blossomed and they married at Oxford Registry Office in June 1933, in spite of the reservations of her family and disciplinary action by her college. He was a Sikh whose family traced back to Guru Nanak Dev Ji. She met her husband Baba Pyare Lal "BPL" Bedi, an Indian from Lahore, on her PPE course. Life at Oxford Īt Oxford, Freda Houlston changed her subject from French to Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). She succeeded in gaining admission to St Hugh's College, Oxford to study French, being awarded an Exhibition or minor scholarship. She also spent several months studying at a school in Rheims in northern France. Freda studied at Hargrave House and then at Parkfields Cedars School, both in Derby. Her mother, Nellie, remarried in 1920, to Frank Norman Swan. He was killed in northern France on 14 April 1918. When she was still a baby, the family moved to Littleover, a suburb of Derby.įreda's father served in the First World War and was enrolled in the Machine Guns Corps. Early life įreda Marie Houlston was born in a flat above her father's jewellery and watch repair business in Monk Street in Derby. Freda Bedi (born Freda Marie Houlston 5 February 1911 – 26 March 1977), also known as Sister Palmo or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo, was a British woman who was jailed in India as a supporter of Indian nationalism and was the first Western woman to take full ordination in Tibetan Buddhism.
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