Lyra Taylor

{{Short description|New Zealand lawyer and social worker}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}

{{infobox person

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Lyra Taylor

| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|OBE}}

| image = Lyra Taylor.png

| alt =

| caption = Lyra Taylor, 1940

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1894|07|11|df=y}}

| birth_place = Stratford, New Zealand

| death_date = {{death date and age|1979|03|23|1894|07|11|df=y}}

| death_place = Richmond, Victoria, Australia

| other_names =

| education = {{Unbulleted list |Victoria University College|Johns Hopkins University}}

| alma_mater =

| occupation = {{hlist|Social worker|Lawyer}}

| years_active =

| era =

| employer = {{Unbulleted list |Family Welfare Agency of Baltimore|Family Welfare Association, Montreal|Australian Commonwealth Department of Social Services}}

| organization =

| title = {{indented plainlist|

• General secretary of Young Women's Christian Association, Sydney
• Assistant director of Old People's Welfare Council of Victoria
• National Old People's Welfare Council of Australia (Australian Council on the Ageing from 1968)
• Acting-director of Western Australian Council on the Ageing

}}

| movement =

| boards = {{indented plainlist|

• New South Wales Council of Social Service (1940-42)
• Board of social studies, University of Sydney (1940-44)
• Board of social studies, University of Melbourne}}

| awards =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Lyra Veronica Esmeralda Taylor {{post-nominals|country=AUS|OBE}} (11 July 1894 – 23 March 1979) was a New Zealand lawyer and social worker. She spent much of her career in Australia.

Taylor was born on 11 July 1894 in Stratford, New Zealand. She was one of four children of Robert Taylor, a farmer from England, and his New Zealand-born wife Mary, née Morrison. One of her siblings was Clara Taylor, who became a science teacher in England.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=taylor-lyra-veronica-esmeralda-11831|title= Taylor, Lyra Veronica Esmeralda (1894–1979)|last=Bundock|first= Anthea|accessdate=19 November 2014}}{{Cite web |title=Women's World: New Zealand author |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19231006.2.82?end_date=31-12-1980&query=Lyra+Clara+Taylor&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1900&type=ARTICLE |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} Another sister, Portia, became a doctor in England, and Taylor's only brother became a barrister.{{Cite web |title=Current Topics |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/STEP19250530.2.11?end_date=31-12-1980&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=Lyra+Clara+Taylor&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1900&type=ARTICLE |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}}{{Cite web |title=Wedding in England |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19261201.2.12?end_date=31-12-1980&items_per_page=10&query=Lyra+Clara+Portia+Taylor&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1900&type=ARTICLE |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}}

Taylor studied law at the Victoria University of Wellington, and was "called to the bar" in 1918,{{cite news|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS19180401.2.43|title=Auckland Star – Personal – 1 April 1918|date=1 April 1918|work=Auckland Star|accessdate=12 September 2015}} the first woman to be a barrister in Wellington. In 1919, Taylor was made partner at a law firm which duly renamed itself as Kirk, Wilson, and Taylor.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19191031.2.32.1|title= Evening Post Vol XCVIII Issue 105 31 October 2019 pg 6: Legal| website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=2019-04-10}}

In early 1940 Taylor was appointed general secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in New South Wales.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17672504|title=Y.W.C.A. SECRETARY.|date=1940-01-11|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954)|access-date=2020-03-28|pages=19}} In 1944 she started work with the Australian Department of Social Services.{{cite web|url=https://www.gg.gov.au/speech/opening-national-australian-social-policy-conference|title=Opening the National Australian Social Policy Conference – 8 July 2009|last=Quentin Bryce|author-link=Quentin Bryce|date=8 July 2009|accessdate=21 November 2014}} Taylor was sent on a 10 month study tour of England, Canada and the United States sponsored by the Carnegie Trust.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247728849|title=Youth Clubs Tell World Of Democracy|date=1949-01-14|work=Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 – 1954)|access-date=2020-03-28|pages=7}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17927631 |title=MISS LYRA TAYLOR RETURNS |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=33,351 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=14 November 1944 |accessdate=30 July 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Taylor was a founding member of the Australian Association of Social Workers.

In the 1959 Queen's Birthday Honours, Taylor was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.{{cite journal|date=September 1979|title=Obituary – Miss Lyra Taylor, O.B.E., M.A., LL.B.|journal=Australian Social Work|volume=32|issue=3|doi=10.1080/03124077908549568|pages=49–50}}{{cite news|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41728/supplement/3737|title=Supplement to The London Gazette, 13th June 1959|date=5 June 1959|work=The London Gazette|publisher=Government of the United Kingdom|pages=3737 |accessdate=19 November 2014}}