Editing Radclyffe Hall (section)

==Early life ==
[[File:John Singer Sargent - Mabel Batten.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mabel Batten]] sang to [[John Singer Sargent]] as he painted her portrait, around 1897.]]

Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall was born in 1880 at "Sunny Lawn", Durley Road, [[Bournemouth]], Hampshire (now [[Dorset]]),{{sfn|Baker|1985|p=7}} to Radclyffe ("Rat") Radclyffe-Hall (1846–1898) and Mary Jane Sager (née Diehl). Hall's father was a wealthy philanderer, educated at [[Eton College|Eton]] and [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] but seldom working, since he inherited a large amount of money from his father, an eminent physician who was head of the [[British Medical Association]]; her mother was an unstable American widow from Philadelphia.<ref name=":0">Vargo, Marc E. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5kgVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT56 "Scandal: Infamous Gay Controversies of the Twentieth Century"] pp. 56-57</ref><ref name="oxforddnb.com"/> Radclyffe's father left in 1882, abandoning young Radclyffe and her mother. However, he did leave behind a considerable inheritance for Radclyffe.<ref name="HallFacts">{{cite web|title=Radclyffe Hall Facts |url=http://biography.yourdictionary.com/radclyffe-hall |website=Your Dictionary Biography |publisher=LoveToKnow Media |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130415061635/http://biography.yourdictionary.com/radclyffe-hall |archive-date=April 15, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hall's mother subsequently married [[Albert Visetti]], a professor of singing, whom she did not like and who had a tempestuous relationship with her mother.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jY0GDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 Laura Seddon, ''British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century'', Routledge (2013)] - [[Google Books]] p158</ref><ref name="HallFacts" /> Hall also despised her mother. Throughout her childhood, Mary made it clear that the daughter was unwanted after failing to get an abortion during pregnancy. She frequently dipped into Hall's inheritance money for herself.<ref name=":0" />

As Hall grew older and gained more autonomy, she realised that she had enough inheritance money from her father to live without working or marrying. She began to do as she pleased, dressing in typical men's fashion of the times, such as trousers, monocles and hats.<ref name="HallFacts" /> Hall was a lesbian<ref name="glbtq">{{cite glbtq.com | article=Hall, Radclyffe (1880-1943) | date=August 19, 2005 | orig-year=2002 | article-url= http://www.glbtq.com/literature/hall_radclyffe.html | last=Glasgow | first=Joanne | archive-date=24 February 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224223447/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/hall_radclyffe.html}}</ref> but described herself as a "[[Sexual inversion (sexology)|congenital invert]]", a term taken from the writings of [[Havelock Ellis]] and other turn-of-the-century [[sexologists]]. Having reached adulthood without a vocation, she spent much of her twenties pursuing women she eventually lost to marriage.

In 1907 at the [[Bad Homburg]] spa in Germany, Hall met [[Mabel Batten]] (1856–1916), a well-known amateur singer of {{lang|de|[[Lieder]]}}. Batten (nicknamed "Ladye") was 51 years old to Hall's 27, and was married with an adult daughter and grandchildren. They fell in love and, after Batten's husband died, they set up residence together. Batten introduced Hall to a circle of artistic and intellectual women, many of them lesbians. She also was the first to call Hall "John", after noting her resemblance to one of Hall's male ancestors, and Hall used this name for the rest of her life.{{sfn|Cline|1998|pp=58–67}} Batten encouraged Hall to begin seeking publishing for her poetry.<ref name=":0" />

In 1915, Hall fell in love with Batten's cousin, [[Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge|Una Troubridge]] (1887–1963). Troubridge was a sculptor, the wife of Vice-Admiral [[Ernest Troubridge]], and the mother of a young daughter. Troubridge and Hall would be lovers for the remainder of their lives. The romance caused tension between Batten, Hall, and Troubridge, until 1916 when Batten died. Upon her death, Hall had Batten's corpse embalmed and a silver crucifix blessed by the pope laid on it.<ref>{{cite news | last=Philpot | first=Terry | date=18 July 2018 | title=In and out of church: Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge | work=[[The Tablet]] | publication-place=London | pages=8–9 | issn=0039-8837 | url=https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/13943/in-and-out-of-church-radclyffe-hall-and-una-troubridge}}</ref> Hall, Batten, and Troubridge were "undeterred by the Church's admonitions on same-sex relationships. Hall's Catholicism sat beside a life-long attachment to spiritualism and reincarnation."{{sfn|Philpot|2018|p=9}} In 1917, Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge began living together.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apurnell.com/wilreadings/Hall.htm|title=Radclyffe Hall|work=A purnell|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509162044/http://www.apurnell.com/wilreadings/Hall.htm|archive-date=9 May 2006}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> From 1924 to 1929 they lived at 37 [[Holland Street, London|Holland Street]], Kensington, London.<ref>[File:Radclyffe Hall 37 Holland Street blue plaque.jpg "English Heritage Blue Plaque"]</ref> The relationship lasted until Hall's death.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}