84 years ago in 1923, Muriel was born in London and grew up in a 'traditional' family, where the father was a strict rather Victorian "commercial traveler" and her mother was a housewife. In those times women were not expected to work outside of the house.
When Muriel turned 17 the Second World War started and she was evacuated to Folkstone and then to Wales where she got confronted with poverty in the coalmines. She felt a sense of injustice and this shaped her socialist political orientation. At this time she met a Minister who became a lifelong friend and shaped her values of voluntarism and her openness and interest in other cultures. The minister was involved in missionary work and she met students from Northern Rhodesia who became friends. She visited the African hostel every Saturday despite racist pressures from society who saw black people as less. This is also were she met Seretse Khama (Botswana's first president) and introduced her sister to him.

The war resulted in her becoming an Air-raid Warden, which implied patrolling an area in order to find out where people would sleep, so that after bombings rescue-workers would know where to search and not "waste time". Those years were full of fear since there were frequent bombings (she was an Air-raid Warden from 18-22 years). She called them the "horrible years". She didn't have time to go out because cinemas and other recreational activities were not safe due to the bombings.

After the war Muriel did not know what she wanted and there were not many opportunities for women. She worked at a bank and later came across an opportunity to work for an accountancy firm. She also joined a Missionary Youth Group in which German, Australian, British and other young people worked together to reconstruct buildings that were destroyed in the war.

Muriel's interest in other cultures and her work for the World Council of Churches led her to meet a gentleman in Geneva who wanted to set up an Ecumenical Learning Center in Zambia. Muriel was sponsored to go to Zambia to help set up the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation, a learning center where leadership and vocational skills were taught. Muriel lived in Zambia for 36 years. She got involved in politics and after she saw how Africans were treated by the British she gave up her citizenship and became a Zambian citizen.

After 36 years Muriel's family invited her to come and live in Botswana with them, and she has lived in Botswana for about 10 years. She has always remained active in volunteer work and in Botswana she has done accounting for Mokolodi and LifeLine. At the moment she still does accounting for Sponsor a Child Foundation and the Methodist Church in Gaborone.

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