Leakey, Caroline Woolmer (1827–1881)

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Leakey, Caroline Woolmer (1827–1881)

British novelist and poet. Name variations: Oliné Keese or Oline Keese. Born Mar 8, 1827, in Exeter, England; died July 12, 1881, in England; 6th of 11 children of James Leakey (painter) and Eliza (Woolmer) Leakey.

Lived with sister Eliza Medland in Tasmania (1848–53); succumbed to typhoid and other illnesses and returned to England (1853); following death of her sister Mary (1854), took over as head of her school in London; published Lyra Australis (1854), a collection of poems on religion, sickness and death; established home for fallen women in Exeter (1861); under pen name Oline Keese, published The Broad Arrow: Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer (1859), about a woman in a convict settlement; also published Evangelical tracts; her memoir, Clear Shining Light was published by her sister Emily (1882).

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Leakey, Caroline Woolmer (1827–1881)

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