Doris Irene Taylor

Doris Irene Taylor was born in Norwood, South Australia in 1901, the daughter of Thomas Simpkin Taylor and Angelina Williams Taylor. Her father was a bricklayer.[1] Twice in childhood, she survived falls that caused her a limp and paralysis.[2] In 1925 she was injured in a collision with a car, while her sister Ivy was pushing her wheelchair.[3][4]

During the 1930s Taylor worked as a secretary and a fundraiser for a mothers' club, and for a soup kitchen.[1] She moved into political work with the Australian Labor Party by the mid-1940s, and directed a survey of housing conditions.[5] Taylor is credited with persuading Don Dunstan to run for the South Australian lower house seat of Norwood in 1952.[2]

Taylor founded Australian Meals on Wheels in South Australia in 1953,[6] and in 1954 the first meal was served from the Port Adelaide kitchen.[2][7] She worked to include other home-based services for seniors in the organization's offerings, including personal care and library access. Her work for healthier aging was praised by the World Health Organization.[2] She also campaigned for accessible recreation and "a wheelchair for every invalid".[8]

Taylor was appointed M.B.E. in 1959.[2]

In addition to the spine and leg injuries that affected her mobility, Taylor had rheumatoid arthritis.[2][5] She enjoyed learning, and taught herself to speak Russian; she also read twice a week to a blind schoolmaster.[5] In 1951 she began using a motorized wheelchair, saying "Heaven help any bureaucrat who gets in my way now."[9] Taylor died in 1968, in Adelaide, aged 66 years. The South Australian Electoral district of Taylor is named after her.[10]