People Australia

Bea Taylor, n.d.

Beatrice Mary (Bea) Taylor (1893-1982) school teacher and trade union official

Birth: 17 April 1893 at Adelong, New South Wales, daughter of Hezekiah Taylor (1852-1898), born at Tremaine, Cornwell, England, manager of the Anglo Australian Exploration at Mount Boppy, Cobar, and Annie Maria, née Fardon (1855-1932), born at Tumut, NSW. Unmarried. Death: 15 November 1982 at Sydney.

• Public school teacher from 1911, taught various schools, including 19 years at Paddington Boys’. Active in Assistant Teachers’ Association.
• Eloquent public speaker; advocate of equal pay; instrumental in the adoption of equal pay for equal work policy by the annual conference of the NSW Teachers’ Federation (NSWTF) in 1919. In 1927 she was elected to the executive of NSWTF as a vice-president of the Assistants’ Association; senior vice-president 1929. Also became an active member of the United Associations of Women.
• Visited the Soviet Union in March-September 1932 a as representative of the Educational Workers’ League; suspended by the Education Department after publicising the visit. She was reinstated after lobbying by the Beatrice Taylor Defence Committee.
• Outspoken critic of the dismissal of women teachers under the Married Women (Teachers’ and Lecturers’) Act, 1932.
• School mistress in country NSW during the 1930s; active in Girls Mistresses’ Association. Returned to teaching in Sydney. Re-elected to NSWTF Council 1947, retaining post until the early 1950s, chiefly representing country associations; also re-elected to NSWTF executive for several years; represented Federation on Labor Council of NSW and at Australian Teachers’ Federation conferences.
• Sill a member of the UAW in late 1970s. Sister of Don Taylor, also a teacher and trade union official; sisters Marjorie Taylor (1888-1961)) and Annie Maria Burns (1883-1946), were also active in the Assistant Teachers’ Association and the NSWTF.
• Cause of death [coroner’s report]: cardiomegaly and fracture of right tibia (accidental).

Sources
H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); Education, journal of the NSW Public Teachers Federation, 15 April 1932, 15 April 1940, 23 September 1944, 28 February 1950, 3 December 1975; Workers’ Weekly, 13 January and 10 February 1933; B. A. Mitchell, Teachers, Education and Politics (Brisbane, 1975); Winifred Joyce Mitchell, 50 Years of feminist achievement: a history of the United Associations of Women (Sydney, 1979).