Ellice Nosworthy

ELLICE MAUD NOSWORTHY, BArch (1919-22) Architect
(1897-1972)

ELLICE MAUD NOSWORTHY was born in 1897, the second of four daughters. Her father was a shipping company executive and her mother came from a family of notable academics. She studied high school at Redlands in Neutral Bay and at the University of Sydney to pursue an Arts degree in 1917. In 1919, she transferred to the newly established Faculty of Architecture with the first cohort of students under Professor Wilkinson. She was among the first group of graduates of Architecture in 1922.

Her first employment was with Waterhouse and Lake during 1922-1923 implementing domestic designs. She was among the first to be registered as an architect in New South Wales on 26 June 1923. Nosworthy conducted her substantial architectural practice from her home in Treatts Road, Lindfield and often employed other women architects such as Barbara Munro, Louise Hutchinson, Libby Hall, Ethel Richardson and Brigid Wilkinson, daughter of Professor Wilkinson. Nosworthy was Honorary Architect for the Women's College from 1941 until 1972 during which she designed the Reid Wing (1958) and additions to the Williams Wing in 1960.

She never married and her career was interrupted only by her extensive travels to Europe and the United States and her work for the Department of Interior during World War II. Nosworthy was regarded by her sister, Cecily Gunz, as a woman with 'a very good brain. She was a planning sort of person'. She worked full time for nearly fifty years until her death in 1972.

The Architectural Gems of Warrawee by Zeny Edwards, 2000