Lettice D'Oyly Walters

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Lettice D’Oyly Walters (1880–1940) was an English writer and editor who published poetry and helped bring other poets to readers. She edited two notable poetry books with Irish artists, and she started a small press in Chelsea.

She was born on September 24, 1880, in Dorchester, England, to Colonel Charles D’Oyly Harmar and Alice Mary Byas. She grew up at Ramridge House in Hampshire and was educated by a governess. One sister, Fairlie, studied art, while a brother went to Winchester before joining the Royal Marines. People often called her Irish, but she never lived in Ireland and her parents were not Irish.

In 1901 she married Australian banker Lewis Huth Walters. They lived in London and later in Chelsea. Their son, Michael Heriot Huth Walters, was born in 1909 and showed an interest in astronomy. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and later at Princeton, but died of a heart attack in 1934 at age 25. Lettice privately published a small book of tributes to him in 1935.

Lettice’s own poetry began with Speedwell: Dreams and Desires (1917). She also published Forty-Five Poems (1924). She edited two anthologies with the help of Irish artists: The Year’s at the Spring (1920), a reminder of springtime with 63 poems and color plates by Harry Clarke, and Irish Poets of To-day (1921), a collection of 78 poems by 34 writers, including Yeats. These books brought together both war-era poets and women poets.

In 1926 Lettice, her son Michael, and Maureen Patey Eyre Proudman started Swan Press in Chelsea. The press produced limited, finely printed editions and reissued earlier works. Swan Press published Michael’s volume in 1934 and later produced memorial editions for him, though it did not publish much after that.

Lettice D’Oyly Walters died on February 3, 1940, at age 59, in Hampshire, leaving her estate to her sister Phillis. Her husband Lewis died in 1941, and his art collection was sold in 1942 and can be found in major museums today.

Selected works:
- Speedwell: Dreams and Desires (1917)
- Turquoise (1919)
- The Year’s at the Spring: An Anthology of Recent Poetry (1920)
- Irish Poets of To-Day: An Anthology (1921)
- Forty-Five Poems (1924)
- Michael, A Volume of Poems and Tributes to the Memory of Michael Heriot Huth Walters (1934)