Herbert Taylor (Australian politician)
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Herbert Taylor (b. 11 May 1885, Malmsbury, Victoria - d. 24 July 1970, East Melbourne) was an Australian political party organiser, accountant and company director. From 1896 his family lived at Ormond. Leaving Caulfield Grammar School in 1902, Herbert Taylor began work as a clerk at a chemical manufacturer.
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[edit] Career as Chartered Accountant
Three years later he joined an accountancy firm which sent him to open their Perth office in 1907. In 1913 he became senior audit clerk with a Melbourne firm of accountants, Young & Outhwaite. Taylor secured his permanent career with a partnership in 1917; he was to become senior partner on A. H. Outhwaite's retirement in 1947. On 8 May 1919 at the Congregational Church, Brighton, Victoria, Taylor married Doris Madeline Brock (d. 1966).
A founding (1928) fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, from 1933 he was one of two inaugural vice-presidents of the offshoot Australian Chartered Accountants Research Society of Victoria. Its object was to bring members of the institute together, 'professionally, socially and in various forms of sport'. Under the society's auspices, Taylor published two booklets, The Organisation of a Chartered Accountant's Office (1933) and The Audit of Sharebrokers' Accounts (1937).
Taylor joined the Institute of Public Affairs and was to serve on its council in 1945 - 1966. In 1944, as an I.P.A. nominee, he chaired several meetings of Victorian political groups opposed to the Australian Labor Party and reported the outcome to Robert Menzies. These meetings preceded Menzies' conventions — in Canberra in October and at Albury, New South Wales, in December — which led to the formation of the Liberal Party of Australia.
He served on the Liberal Party's finance committee and became a trustee of the State branch. After two years as president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Australia, he voiced in April 1947 the Liberal stance against the rise of 'autocratic Socialism', deploring worker intimidation by an extremist minority of trade union leaders and calling on Australians to restore "the desire to do good work".
A councillor (1945-55) of the University of Melbourne, he was chairman (1950-54) of its finance committee. In addition, he was treasurer (1950-55), vice-president (1956-61) and president (1961-65) of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria. He became a fellow of the Institute of Directors, London. In 1959 he was appointed CMG.
During World War II he wrote a much-appreciated newsletter of club doings, spiced with 'salty humour' and a 'pinch of sentiment', for the eighty members on active service. By invitation, he joined the international Senior Golfers' Society and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Scotland. He also enjoyed fly-fishing, bowls and horse-racing.
The Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind and the Freemasons' Hospital both made him a life governor. Survived by his three sons, he died on 24 July 1970 in East Melbourne and was cremated. His eldest son, Grahame, joined Young & Outhwaite.
[edit] Doris Taylor
Although Herbert Taylor himself appears to have not been knighted or been on any Honours List, despite his accomplishments, his wife, Doris (born Doris Madeline Brock), was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1947. She died in 1966.
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[edit] References
- Susan Priestley, Taylor, Herbert (1885 - 1970), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, pp 368-369.
