Laetitia Withall

Laetitia Withall (30 August 1881 – 11 March 1963) was an Australian-born poet, author and militant suffragette who campaigned in the United Kingdom for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) under the name Leslie Hall. On her imprisonment she went on hunger strike and was force-fed for which she received the Hunger Strike Medal from the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). This medal is now in the collection of the National Library of Australia.

Early years

Withall was born in Adelaide in Australia in 1881, the daughter of her British-born parents Louisa Margaret née Reed (1858–1951) and architect Latham Augustus Withall, OBE (1853–1925) and moved with her family to the United Kingdom when she was aged 7;

Activism She was first arrested in Birmingham on 18 September 1909 as Leslie Hall (a name she had adopted so as to prevent the embarrassment of her parents). Bail was refused, though Martin promised that both she and Withall would refrain from militant action until their trial. The women were removed to Walton Gaol, and were treated as though they were convicted criminals, being treated with considerable violence in prison.

Meanwhile, the facts as to their treatment whilst imprisoned on remand had been widely circulated, for they had dictated statements for their friends' use whilst their trial was being conducted. The Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone wrote to The Times denying the truth of the statements, declaring that the reason for refusing bail to the women was that they had refused to promise to be of good behaviour until their trial came on, that no unnecessary violence had been used and that the women themselves had made no complaint. But indeed, the inaccuracy of Mr. Gladstone's statements had become proverbial, for he was constantly denying the truth of charges which were clearly substantiated by the most reliable evidence.

Her signature is among those embroidered on The Suffragette Banner designed at the Glasgow School of Art by Ann Macbeth (1875–1948) and her students and today held in the collection of the Museum of London.

Later life A poet and author on spiritual matters, Withall's books include: A Traveller Through Time: Glimpses Of A Soul's Past (1928); The Window And Other Poems (1927); Of Meditation And Prayer (1934); Of Prayer. A Simple Talk (1932), and When Half-Gods Go. A Spiritualistic Composition (1922).

In 1939 Withall was living at 8 Linden Avenue in Broadstairs in Kent and here she died in 1963 aged 82. She never married.

In 1961 aged 80 she donated her Hunger Strike Medal to the collection of the National Library of Australia.