Valentine Alexa Leeper (14 February 1900 – 26 July 2001) was an Australian classicist, teacher, polemicist, and letter-writer of renown.
[1] Eccentric and conservative in style, but liberal in many of her views, Leeper acquired from her father the spirit of a controversialist, and over many decades she was a frequent writer of letters to newspapers, government ministers, Anglican church leaders and many others.
She was a commentator and activist on international affairs (e.g. as a long-time member of the League of Nations Union), Indigenous affairs (including as a long-time member of the Victorian Aboriginal Group), education (including the protection of classical studies), the church (for example, as an advocate of women's ordination).
A strong defender of her father's memory and opinions, she provided much information for a biography of him, written by John Poynter, and published in 1997.
[3] It was launched by Geoffrey Blainey and has been described by women's historian Patricia Grimshaw as "a vivid and compelling portrait of this influential woman", and as being at "the forefront of insightful biography".