Leonora Ethel Polkinghorne (née Twiss) (1873 – 11 May 1953) was an Australian women's activist and writer.

Biography

Polkinghorne was born in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, but subsequently moved to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

as a child. She was a teacher before her marriage, teaching mathematics and French at the Christ Church Day School in

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and later becoming co-principal. She became involved in politics around 1909, when she became a founding member of the

Women's Non-Party Association of South Australia A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

(later the League of Women Voters) and honorary treasurer of the short-lived Registered Governesses Association. She married Oswald Polkinghorne in December 1910. They had five children. She served as president of the South Australian division of the Housewives' Association in 1928–29. She was also a vice-president and executive member of the Women's Non-Party Association for a period in the late 1920s and early 1930s, taking over as president from 1938 to 1940. She unsuccessfully contested the 1930 state election as an independent candidate aligned with the Women's Non-Party Association. Her platform consisted of proportional representation, more support for maternal and child welfare, early closing of hotels on Saturdays, "proper control of the feeble-minded", decentralisation, changes to taxation, and "economy of administration in government service". She was touted as an independent candidate for the 1938 election, but did not nominate. During World War II, Polkinghorne, by then a "noted pacifist", spoke out against conscription during that war and dismissed the value of widespread school fundraising to support the war effort. She wrote several novels as "Cecil Warren", some in collaboration with Kate Margaret Stone ("Sydney Partrige"), not all of which were published, and contributed poetry and prose to several early twentieth century literary magazines. She died on 11 May 1953 in the

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whilst on board the liner en route to

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, where she had been due to represent the state branch of the

Union of Australian Women The Union of Australian Women (UAW) is a left-wing women's organisation concerned with local and international issues regarding women's rights, international peace and equality. The UAW was established in Sydney on 31 July 1950 in New South Wa ...

at the Women's World Congress. She was buried in

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polkinghorne, Leonora 1873 births 1953 deaths Australian women activists Australian women writers Australian writers People who died at sea People from Ballarat