Elsa Birch Hay-Taylor

Elsa Hay-Taylor, formerly Butler, nee Gibson, grew up on the family farm at Bool Lagoon. Elsa was the third of eight children and her mother died after the birth of the eighth in 1911. Rather than go into service or care for her father, like her sisters, and not allowed to train as a nurse, Elsa put her age up a year and became a teacher in 1915. Before 1930 she had married and been widowed by aviator Harry Butler and began a career as a nurse. Her first teaching post was to Koolywurtie on Yorke Peninsula where she met Harry Butler before he left for the war. By the time she finally agreed to marry him in July 1920 he had become a celebrity. After his sudden death in 1924 Elsa trained as a nurse at the Adelaide Hospital. From 1934 to 1946 she worked in Britain and the last twelve years of her career were spent as matron of the Semaphore Convalescent Home during which time she remarried