William Frederick Taylor

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William Frederick Taylor (1840–1927) was a British-born Australian surgeon and long-serving Queensland politician.

Early life
Taylor was born on 27 April 1840 in London, England, to Joseph Taylor, a Canadian engineer, and Hannah Lambert. His family moved to Canada, where he attended Kingston Grammar School and Queen’s University, Kingston, earning a medical degree with honours.

Medical career
In 1862 he returned to England and became a Licentiate of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He soon sailed to Melbourne in 1863, then moved to Hay, New South Wales, to practise as a surgeon. He spent time in London again (1866) at Guy’s Hospital and in Paris at Hôtel-Dieu and the Charité before returning to England and becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

From 1870 Taylor practised in Queensland, first in Clermont and then in Warwick, where he served as a visiting doctor and alderman. In 1883 he went back to England to train in ophthalmology and ENT surgery. He returned to Queensland as one of the few specialists with this training, becoming honorary ophthalmologist at Brisbane Hospital in 1888 and later consultant ophthalmologist at Mater Misericordiae Hospital in 1911. He helped found the Medical Society of Queensland in 1882 and, in 1894, became the founding president of the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association.

Political career
Taylor was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council in April 1886 and served for 36 years until the council was abolished in 1922. He was chairman of committees from September 1913 to November 1920 and actively promoted modern hygiene and public health measures.

Personal life
In Clermont, in 1873, Taylor married Isabella Graham, with whom he had five children. One of his daughters married Ernest Bell, a future member for Fassifern. Taylor died on 29 June 1927 in Brisbane and was buried at Toowong Cemetery. Isabella Graham Taylor had died earlier in 1927.