Lesbia Harford

Lesbia Harford (9 April 1891 – 5 July 1927) was an Australian poet, novelist and political activist. She was one of the first women to study law degree at the University of Melbourne. She agitated for the rights of workers, supporting a group of union workers who were imprisoned for treason and other crimes. A later reading of Harford's poetry and biography have raised her profile as a pioneer of 'free love' and a queer icon. Biography Lesbia Venner Keogh was the first child of Edmund Joseph Keogh and Beatrice Eleanor Moore, great-great-granddaughter of an Earl of Drogheda. She was born at Brighton, Victoria, on 9 April 1891. From 1893 to 1900, the family lived at "Wangrabel", 6 Horsburgh Grove, Armadale (the house still stands today). Her father left home for Western Australia when his real estate business failed about 1900. She and her three siblings were raised by their mother, who took genteel jobs, begged handouts from Keogh relations and took in boarders. Harford was educated at the Sacré Cœur School at "Clifton", Malvern, Victoria; Mary's Mount school at Ballarat, Victoria; and the University of Melbourne, where she graduated LL.B. in 1916. She was one of the university's few women students and one of its few opponents of Australia's part in the First World War. Her brother, Esmond Venner (Bill) Keogh, became a prominent medical administrator and cancer researcher. Harford advocated free love in human relations. She herself formed lifelong parallel attachments to both men and women, most notably to Katie Lush, philosophy tutor at Ormond College.