Florence Mary Taylor

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Florence Mary Taylor née Parsons (December 29, 1879 - February 13, 1969) was the first female architect and civil engineer in Australia.^[1]

Florence was born at Bedminster, in Somerset, England. Her family migrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney in 1884. Her father worked as a draftsman-clerk by the Paramatta Council, and worked on sewer construction, he used part of his wage to send Florence to the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon where she excelled at mathematics. Following the death of her father in 1889, she became a clerk to help support the family. She found her work dull and decided to become a architectural draftsperson and enrolled in night classes at Sydney Technical College where she was the only woman training in her field. She also attended architecture lectures in the engineering faculty at the University of Sydney.

During her architecture course she was articled to the architect Edmund Skelton Garton. She was dissatisfied with her role at Garton's office, were she was given the task of writing technical specification while her male counterparts got to do design work. Once she had completed her articles, she left Garton's office and went on to work for John Burcham Clamp who appointed her as chief draftsperson. In 1907 she completed her architectural studies and graduated from the University of Sydney with a BA in structural and civil engineering.^[1]

Once Florence was a qualified architect, Clamp nominated her for associate membership in the Institute of Architects of New South Wales.^[2] Her membership was refused but she worked as a designer anyway, designing numerous houses. In April 1907 Florence married George Augustine Taylor, who had lectured her at university. Florence reputedly became the first Australian woman to fly — in a glider built by George in 1909. They shared an interest in architecture and town planning. They founded the Town Planning Association of New South Wales in 1912 and established Building Publishing Co. Ltd which produced trade journals, three of which Florence edited. In 1920 she was finally invited to join the Institute of Architects, and she accepted, becoming the first accredited female architect in Australia.^[3]

Following her husband's sudden death in 1928, Florence maintained their publishing business and continued to produce town plans. She also travelled to Asia and Europe to study town planning. A book about her town plans was published in 1959, 50 years of town planning with Florence M. Taylor by J. M. Giles. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1939 and elevated to a Commander of that order in 1961.

The Canberra suburb Taylor was named in her honour, several professional awards are named in her honour, including the the Florence M. Taylor Medallion from the Master Builders Association of Victoria and the Florence Taylor Award from the Queensland chapter of the Australian Institute of Building.^[4][5]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} De Vries, S. 1999. The Complete Book of Great Australian Women. Harper Collins. ISBN 073227804X
2. ^ Christa Ludlow, Taylor, Florence Mary (1879 - 1969), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp 176-177.
3. ^ Heywood, A. 2002. Taylor, Florence Mary (1879 - 1969) National Foundation for Australian Women
4. ^ Master Builders Association of Victoria. Apprentice of the Year Awards
5. ^ Australian Institute of Building. Australian Institute of Building, 54th Annual Report