Pamela Freeman-Mitford (25 November 1907 – 12 April 1994) was one of the

Mitford sisters The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberlan ...

Biography

Pamela Freeman-Mitford was born on 25 November 1907, the second daughter of

David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (13 March 1878 – 17 March 1958) was an English landowner and the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted. Ancestry and early life Mitford's le ...

, and Sydney Bowles (1880–1963).

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

, who for a time was in love with her, referred to her in his unpublished poem, ''The Mitford Girls'', as the "most rural of them all" since she preferred to live quietly in the country. They met when she was managing Biddesden, in Wiltshire, the house of her brother-in-law,

Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne Bryan Walter Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, (27 October 1905 – 6 July 1992) was an heir to part of the Guinness family brewing fortune, and a lawyer, poet and novelist. He was briefly married to Diana Mitford. Early life He was born to W ...

. In 1936, she married the millionaire physicist

Derek Jackson Derek Ainslie Jackson, OBE, DFC, AFC, FRS (23 June 1906 – 20 February 1982) was a British physicist and jockey. Biography Derek Jackson was born in 1906, the son of Welsh businessman Sir Charles Jackson. Derek Jackson showed early promi ...

. Jackson was bisexual and married six times. They lived at Tullamaine Castle in

Fethard, County Tipperary Fethard (; ) (archival records) is a small town in County Tipperary, Ireland. Dating to the Norman invasion of Ireland, the town's walls were first laid-out in the 13th century, with some sections of these defensive fortifications surviving ...

, with Jackson's bisexuality and womanizing raising some suspicions that it was a marriage of convenience. After her divorce in 1951, she spent much of the next twenty years as the companion of Giuditta Tommasi (died 1993), an Italian horsewoman.

Jessica Mitford Jessica Lucy "Decca" Treuhaft (née Freeman-Mitford, later Romilly; 11 September 1917 – 23 July 1996) was an English author, one of the six aristocratic Mitford sisters noted for their sharply conflicting politics. Jessica married her second ...

described her as having become a "you-know-what-bian", although Diana was less certain whether Pamela and Giuditta were lovers. They parted in 1972 when Pamela returned to the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

to live at Caundle Green. She died on 12 April 1994, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitford, Pamela 1907 births 1994 deaths English socialites Lesbians English LGBT people Mitford family Daughters of barons 20th-century LGBT people