Kathleen Freeman was born on the 22nd of June, 1897, in Yardley, Birmingham. By 1911, she and her parents, Charles H Freeman, a commercial traveller, and Catherine Freeman (née Mawdesley) had moved to Conway Road, Cardiff. Kathleen attended Canton High School and University of South Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff University).
After graduating with a BA in Classics, Kathleen stayed on at the University as a Greek lecturer, being awarded an MA and D.Litt. During the Second World War, she lectured for the Ministry of Information and HM Forces in South Wales. In 1946, having become a senior lecturer, she resigned from Cardiff University to focus on her writing and research.
As well as publishing academic texts on Classics and Greek translations, Kathleen was a mystery and detective writer. She was admitted into the Detection Club in 1951, a group of mystery writes which included Agatha Christie. Mary Fitt was her most used and well-known pseudonym, under which she published 27 novels and short stories from 1936, but she also wrote as Stuart Mary Wick, Clare St Donat, Caroline Cory and ‘T’other Jane Austen.’
From the 1930s until her death on the 21st of February 1959, Kathleen lived with her partner Dr Liliane Clopet, a GP and writer, at Lark Ride, Druidstone Road, St. Mellons (outside Cardiff). Several of her books were dedicated to Liliane. Liliane died in Newport in 1987, aged 86.
Sources:
- ‘FREEMAN, KATHLEEN (‘Mary Fitt’; 1897 - 1959), classical scholar and writer,’ The Welsh Biography
- ‘Inspirational People: 3. Kathleen Freeman – Classicist and Fiction Writer,’ Judith Dray, Cardiff University Blogs
- ‘How to Conceal a Female Scholar; or, the Invisible Classicist of Cardiff,’ Edith Hall, The Edithorial
- Kathleen Freeman, A Brief Biography & Bibliography, M. Eleanor Irwin, University of Toronto
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