Florence Mary Taylor
| Florence Mary Taylor | |
|---|---|
Florence Taylor
|
|
| Born |
29 December 1879 Bedminster, Somerset, England |
| Died | 13 February 1969 (aged 89) Potts Point, New South Wales, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | OBE, CBE |
| Practice | Town Planning Association of New South Wales Building Publishing Co. Ltd |
Florence Mary Taylor CBE (née Parsons) (29 December 1879, Bedminster, England – 13 February 1969, Sydney, Australia) was the first qualified female architect and the first woman to train as an engineer in Australia. She was also the first woman in Australia to fly in a heavier-than-air craft in 1909 and the first female member of the UK's Institution of Structural Engineers in 1926. However she is best known for her role as publisher, editor and writer for the influential building industry trade journals established in 1907 with her husband George, which she ran and expanded after his death in 1928 until her retirement in 1961.
Florence was born at Bedminster, in Somerset (now a part of Bristol), England to working class parents who described themselves as "stone quarryman" and "washerwoman" in the British census of 1881. The daughter of John Parsons and Eliza (nee Brooks). Her family migrated to Australia when she was a child, arriving in Sydney in 1884 after a short stint in Queensland. Her father John Parsons soon found work as a draftsman-clerk with the Parramatta Council, and also in the sewerage construction branch of the NSW Department of Public Works. According to her official although unpublished biography by Kerwin Maegraith, Florence attended a nearby public school where she says she received a "good education".
Following the deaths of her mother in 1896 and father in 1899, Florence was forced to find work to help support herself and her two younger sisters. She eventually found a position as a clerk in the Parramatta architectural practice of Francis Ernest Stowe, an acquaintance of her father's. Inspired by the example of draftspeople in the same office who were earning far more than herself, she enrolled in night classes at the Sydney Technical College where she became the first woman to complete final year studies in architecture in 1904.
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