Josephine 'Josie' Taylor (nee Bytheway)

Whilst a student at Ipswich Girls Grammar School (she won a scholarship in 1896), the untrained Josie Bytheway won the soprano solo at the 1899 Eisteddfod.  Adjudicator Henry King described her voice at the most beautiful mezzo-soprano he had ever heard. 

The following year, Josie travelled to New South Wales to begin formal musical training. 

On her return to Ipswich, she became the deputy conductor, under conductor Leonard Francis, for the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, singing solos at many Cambrian concerts. 

To further her career, she had moved to England by December 1914, with the press there describing her as ‘The Australian Nightingale’. 

Singing to wartime audiences, she sang patriotic songs until she married Claude Taylor in 1916, retiring from her singing career.  The wedding was a social event, attended by Queensland’s Agent General Sir Thomas Robinson. 

She was said to be a regular guest at Buckingham Palace, and treasured a gift of antique jade, given to her by Queen Mary, who had become a close personal friend. 

Josie returned to Ipswich in 1950, visiting with friends, including Laura Haenke, whose parents, Benjamin and Laura Taylor, were photographers who had taken a number of images of the young Josie in performances with the Cambrian Choir, Ipswich Central Girls School, and Ipswich Girls Grammar School. 

She died August 23rd 1953, aged in her seventies; she had been unwell for several months.  In a letter, sent to Laura Haenke following Josie’s death, it was said that gum leaves, recently sent from Australia, were made into a wreath and used at the funeral.