Short answers, pulled from the story.
Muriel Lester (the 9th of December 1883 - the 11th of February 1968) was a British social reformer, pacifist campaigner, writer and religious nonconformist. She founded Kingsley Hall in Bow, was a founding member of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and was recognised by the Nobel Prize organisation as a possible nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kingsley Hall was a community centre on Botolph Road in Bow, East London, established in 1915 by Muriel Lester and her sister Verona Doris Lester. It began as London's first purpose-built children's nursery and expanded into a "People's House" offering study, worship and social events. It is now home to the Gandhi Foundation voluntary organisation.
Gandhi stayed at Kingsley Hall for twelve weeks from September 1931 because he rejected the government-arranged suite at the Hilton Hotel and fleet of cars, choosing instead to live among the East End poor with his friend Muriel Lester. He was in London to attend the Second Imperial Round Table Conference on India's future.
Lester was detained in Trinidad in 1941 after her anti-war speeches on a tour of the Americas drew official attention. She was forcibly repatriated to Britain, briefly imprisoned in Holloway Prison, and had her passport confiscated.
Lester was a founding member of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), a Christian pacifist organisation. In 1933 she became its Ambassador-At-Large and later its Traveling Secretary, completing nine international tours in the 1930s to support new chapters across the Middle East, China and Japan.
The Muriel Lester Archive is held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London.