Lillian Horniblow (Laura Grahame)

Born: 1874 in Ceylon.

Died: 1958.

Lillian Horniblow used the name Laura Grahame for secret assignations with ‘gentlemen friends’, Crowley being one such gentleman who had been seeing her for some months in 1899. She was born Lillian Horsford in Ceylon (1874-1958), the daughter of Frederick Wallis O'Bryan Horsford, born Ceylon in 1842 and Cecilia Benvenuta Macready, born in 1846 (they married in 1867 and had five children).

Lillian married Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) Frank Herbert Horniblow of the Royal Engineers, born (like Crowley) in Leamington (1860-1931). They were married on 3 October 1895 at Christ Church, Barton Regis, in Warwickshire. ‘Laura’ had also paid for Allan Bennett's passage to Ceylon.

Her affair with Crowley ended when he devoted himself to the Abramelin operation and observed the spiritual and physical conditions of abstinence. She pleaded to see him again and invited him to her hotel. Although he had dismissed her previous requests, he agreed to this one because he needed something from her.

He arrived at her room, confronted her coolly, and told her: “You are making a mess of your life by your selfishness. I will give you a chance to do an absolutely unfettered act. Give me £100. I won’t tell you whom it’s for, except that it’s not for myself. I have private reasons for not using my own money in this matter. If you give me this, it must be without hoping or expecting anything in return.” Crowley’s private reasons are curious: Bennett needed £100 to leave England. Crowley refused to give the money himself not out of greed but because he feared the transaction would ruin their friendship. Although Crowley provided Bennett with free room and board, he did so in exchange for lessons in magic. Thus both parties retained their dignity.

Lillian considered this request and handed the money over. Crowley took it and beat a hasty retreat from her life. Meanwhile, Crowley’s jilted mistress had more than a cold shoulder in mind when she handed over £100 for mysterious purposes. When all she received was a hurried thank-you, she protested. Word got around, and that January, Crowley invited her to stay at his new home. He offered to pay her expenses as compensation for the money in dispute. She accepted and made the journey. No doubt precipitating this invitation, Horniblow had warned Crowley that he was about to find himself in what he, in his diary, referred to as “Great Trouble.