Leila Waddell

Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell, also known as Laylah, (10 August 1880 – 13 September 1932) was a daughter of Irish immigrants to Australia, David Waddell of Bathurst and Randwick. She was a voluptuous beauty and became a famed Scarlet Woman of Aleister Crowley, and a powerful historical figure in magick and Thelema in her own right. While Creswell states Leila was part-Maori, he provides no evidence of this; in fact NSW birth deaths and marriages records show she was the grand daughter of John Crane (Coventry) and Janet McKenzie (Fort William Inverness) and John Waddell (Monaghan) and Elizabeth McAnally (Monaghan).

Waddell was born in Bathurst, New South Wales. She was the daughter of Mr. David Waddell of Bathurst and Randwick and Mrs Waddell of Bellevue Hill.

A pupil of Mr. Henry Stael, Miss Waddell taught violin at the Presbyterian Ladies College, Sydney, (Croydon) and at the Ascham School and Kambala School. She made her public debut at the organ recitals of the then city organist Mr. Arthur Mason. In 1906 she joined as a soloist The Brescians, a party from Europe, who appeared in peasant festival costumes in association with J.T. West’s early cinematograph shows.

In 1908, Mr. West introduced her to London and she achieved success as the leader of the Gipsy Band in “The Waltz Dream” at Dalys Theatre. As The Ragtime Gipsy, Miss Waddell won fame in vaudeville throughout England. It was while in London that she met Aleister Crowley.

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