Leila Waddell Biography

Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell

Born: 10 August 1880 in Bathurst, New South Wales.

Died: 13 September 1932.

Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell was the daughter of David Waddell and Ivy Lea Bathurst of Randwick, New South Wales. She was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, a city whose largely aboriginal population was transformed by the 1851 discovery of gold and the 1876 completion of a railway from Sydney. She took violin lessons from age seven, quickly mastering her instrument. However, when her tutor died, it became clear that she was playing by memorizing her teacher’s performance, without either reading music or understanding theory. So she got a new tutor and started over. She was trained by Henri Stael, principal violinist with the Pleyel Concert Company, and in the 1898 annual examinations at the Sydney College of Music she was first runner-up for a medal in advanced honors in violin. She began teaching in suburban Sydney: at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, a day and boarding school in the western suburb of Croydon, where she taught Junior Violin from 1901 to 1905; at Ascham, a nondenominational girls boarding school in the eastern suburb of Edgecliff, until March 1907; and at Kambala, an Anglican day and boarding school for girls in the eastern suburb of Rose Bay.

With the press dubbing her “a very clever violiniste,” she—along with a pianist, contralto, and bass—played a Grand Concert on 21 January 1904, under the management of Walter E. Taylor. Selections included Grieg’s “Sonata No. 3 in C Minor (Opus 45)” and Wieniawski’s “Cappricio-Valse” in E major (Opus 7), both for violin and piano. This latter piece she played “with great delicacy and brilliancy, exciting prolonged applause.” After two recalls, “her virtuosity being amply demonstrated,” “the talented young lady” returned with “Le Cygne,” the thirteenth movement of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of Animals; the “Romance” from Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2; and Bohm’s “Papillons.” In August 1905, she debuted as a soloist at a Sydney Town Hall concert recital given by Arthur Mason, dubbed “one of our busiest musicians” for his jobs as City Organist, organist at St. James’ Church, and director of the Sydney Choristers. A 1906 concert was held to honor the celebrated violinist’s charitable works. This attracted the attention of Henry Hawayrd, who hired her for the Brescians, a group of Anglo-Italian instrumentalists and vocalists who served as the movie-theater orchestra for T.J. West’s West Pictures in New Zealand. Works performed by Waddell at this time included Charles Flavell Hayward’s “Grand Concert Duet (Olde Englande) on English Airs, for Two Violins” (with Auelina Martinego) and Francesco Paolo Tosti’s song “Beauty’s Eyes,” with violin accompaniment and obligato.

Waddell played with the Brescians from 1906 to 1908, when she left for England to hone her craft. This is likely when she studied with world-class violin teacher Émile Sauret (1852–1920), who was teaching in England at this time; several years later, she would also study with Leopold Auer (1845–1930) in New York. Success followed her, as the Sydney Mail reported in June 1909, that “the well-known Sydney violinist has been meeting with marked success at Bournemouth.” Soon she was performing as part of the Ladies’ Orchestra in George Edwardes’s revival of Oscar Straus’s A Waltz Dream, which opened at Daly’s Theater in Leicester Square on January 17, 1911. While the Times reviewer was admittedly jaded by having seen previous productions and thus gave the show a lukewarm reception, The Play Pictorial raved. The show ran for 106 performances through the end of April 1911.

Part Maori, Leila Waddell had square brusque features and thick eyebrows, nose, and lips. Her straight dark hair reached down to her waist. She was slender, attractive, and exotic, and Aleister Crowley fell madly in love with her. He dubbed her “the Mother of Heaven”—often referring to her simply as “Mother.” She became one of the most intriguing and important figures in Crowley’s life. Within a week of her acquaintance, he was inspired to write “The Vixen” and “The Violinist.”

She was familiarly addressed by Crowley as “Laylah,” and was immortalized in The Book of Lies and The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Waddell herself was an accomplished writer, magician, and musician, and a founding member of the original company of the Rites of Eleusis.

In 1912 Leila Waddell, and fellow Crowley students Mary d'Este-Sturges and Mary Butts, were given co-authorship credit on Crowley's Magick as they wrote down his words, helped shape them by asking defining questions, and elicited Crowley's commentary on pertinent points.

She was Crowley's lover from March 1910 till October 1911. His relationship with Laylah was important in that she appeared to have a measure of independence many of the others did not have. Although She was initiated into Crowley's A∴A∴ on 1 April 1910, she resisted Crowley's wishes for her to commit more deeply to magick.

In 1923 Leila returned to Sydney to nurse her ailing father. She performed with the Conservatorium Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney and the theatre, and she resumed teaching at the convent School of the Sacred Heart in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay.

Leila died 13 September, 1932 from uterine cancer at the young age of 52.