June was one of the founders of the Queensland Bookbinders Guild in 1977, and worked tirelessly for members and on the committee, of which she was Secretary for 35 years.
Those who knew June would recall her indefatigable devotion to the Guild and to bookbinding. She has presented many talks, courses and articles over the years and she last spoke at a Guild meeting in February this year. June was 99 years old.
The funeral of June McNicol OAM will be held at 11:00 on Thursday 30th October at Saint Luke’s Anglican Church, at 169 Ekibin Rd East, Ekibin. I am sure that many members would like to attend.
June's passing is a great loss to the bookbinding world and a personal loss to many of us.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends all over the bookbinding world.
June McNicol photographs
Eulogy for June McNicol, by Dr David Bedford
(delivered at June's funeral, 11:00am on Thursday 30th October at Saint Luke’s Anglican Church, 169 Ekibin Rd East, Ekibin)
I consider myself very fortunate to have met June and Bob McNicol and their family in 1971.That came about through their daughter, Jan, as she and I were biology students together at UQ. I became firm friends with Bob, who I always called ‘Dr McNicol’ because I was a polite young fellow in those days. Bob was a kind of mentor to me as he was so knowledgeable, and he also taught me many practical skills such as soldering wiring and tinkering with motor cars. When Bob and I tinkered in his garage workshop downstairs June was often either upstairs helping her children or out in her garden. Possibly because her grandfather was a farmer, June was very enthusiastic about her vegie garden, I remember she was particularly keen on growing kale, which she insisted was very healthy, but it wasn’t very popular with the rest of us. June, Jan and I also experimented with baking bread using different grains and mixes. They were delicious straight out of the oven with butter, but we found that they quickly turned into what we called ‘lead bread’ by the next day, so it wasn’t a complete success!
Most of this eulogy is derived from June’s memories as recited to and recorded by her family.
As her accent and precise enunciation always announced, June was of English origin. She was born in Horsforth, Leeds on the 21st of June in the English summer of 1926. Her parents were Rosa and Joseph Taylor. June was their first child. Her brother Tony arrived a few years later.
June had a good sense of humour and she always joked that it was a good thing that she hadn’t been born in November as otherwise she might have had that for a name!
In her formative years June attended the local primary school called Featherbank. At age 11 she sat for the scholarship exams and was awarded a scholarship to attend Leeds Girls High School. June greatly enjoyed her time there – meeting the other girls, the smaller class sizes, the subjects and teachers who were truly interested in their students. In particular, her chemistry teacher had quite an influence on June, encouraging her to attend university and expand her education and horizons.
June was clearly an exceptional student, in a time when women rarely went on to tertiary education, upon leaving high school, June enrolled in highly esteemed Cambridge, with financial support from her parents. To be able to attend Cambridge, one has to belong to one of the colleges. June passed the entrance exam for Newnham College – one of the 2 all-female colleges. She studied Chemistry, Physics, Metallurgy and Mineralogy. She soon realised that her passion lay in the realm of Metallurgy. June graduated with a Diploma Degree Bachelor of Arts. At that time women were not awarded ‘proper’ degrees. 7 years later she was awarded an MA as was the practice at that time.
After graduating from Cambridge, June moved to London. She had a job working as a research assistant at British Non-Ferrous Metals. She adored her time in London, exploring the city at every opportunity, visiting the famous places that she had read about such as Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Kew Gardens, the V & A, Albert Hall and more. June recalled that this was a time of endless pleasure, exploring and learning.
While attending Cambridge, June had met Bob McNicol, he was an Australian Physics lecturer there. In June’s own understated way with words, as she told it ‘One thing led to another’. I think that we can translate that to modern terms “they fell madly in love”. They married and honeymooned in Switzerland. In June 1949 when it was time for Bob to return to Australia, June was able to travel with an assisted passage from the Australian government as our young colony was actively seeking settlers. June described this as being “a Ten Pound Pom” a common and often somewhat derogatory description in those days, but hardly adequate for someone special like June, I believe. Bob was 7 years her senior and, as June told it, her mother was convinced that he already had a wife in Australia and would abandon her as soon as she got here. That of course did not happen, and they were very happy together for many, many years.
Once in Australia, June looked for work and was soon offered a position at the University of Qld in the newly created Mining and Metallurgy department. Because the newly appointed lecturers did not turn up June was tasked with setting up the practical work and course work for the new Metallurgy department. In true June fashion, based on what she knew, June did an enormous amount of work to put together the course work, then she instructed the 120 students, set the exams etc. At the end of the year June had a well-earned holiday. Apparently the second year was a bit easier, though there were still challenges throughout that year, not the least being setting up from scratch a chemical analysis laboratory.
Other lecturers were appointed to the department shortly after this and June was relegated to the position of Research Assistant. As there wasn’t any research to do at that time, June left the University. It really shows how shortsighted and male chauvinist those days were when a talented person like June could be so overlooked.
It was at this stage that June and Bob proceeded to have a family. June gave birth to 4 children – Jan, Ken, Andrew and Phil, who are all with us here today.
As all who knew her realised, June was very community minded; indeed, one could say that she was a true community champion. While raising her children June’s mind was still very active and she looked around for other interests, so she threw herself into local activities in the community, including those that her children were involved in. June made very significant contributions to her community, and she carefully chose the ways that she was best able to do so.
In the early 1960’s June started driving for Meals on Wheels. In those days there was only one kitchen, based in New Farm. In 1971, she saw that a local MOW was being started by Church of Christ Annerley and that then became Yeronga MOW. June quickly joined and became the Secretary. This was a role she enjoyed on and off for more than 40 years.
In the late 1960’s due to a change in the Metallurgy department at UQ, June went back to work. By this time all her children were in school. Due to her other interests, she preferred working part time. June was put in charge of all practical classes, but this time with equipment, a large staff and plenty of demonstrators. A far cry from her early days.
In 1974, June’s life changed irrevocably when her beloved Bob suffered a fatal heart attack at Easter. It was after this life shattering event that June found herself drawn more closely to the community here at St Lukes.
Very early on in her children’s schooling, June had realised that she could contribute more than as, in her words “a tuckshop lady”. She found out that there was a need for help in the school library and off she went. The librarian showed her the basics of book binding and a new passion formed. At this time, June was a member of the Queensland Craft Council, and she convinced them to put on classes in book binding run by the Superintendent of the State Library of Qld. At the end of this course, June had an inspired moment and suggested forming a bookbinding association. The idea took off, and the Queensland Bookbinders Guild formed in 1977. This was a first in Australia and June was the foundation secretary. She continued in this role well into the 2000’s.
June’s passion for bookbinding saw her start her own book restoration business, which she named Azalea Bindery, after her favourite flower. She had many azalea plants in her garden. This business provided her with an occupation after she left the University in 1993. In addition to restoring books for others June created a collection of finely and artistically bound books, which remains one of her legacies. For many years, if one couldn’t find June, you just opened the door to the ‘bindery’ and there she would be, happy and content.
In 2009, June was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘Service to Bookbinding and Yeronga Meals on Wheels’. Whilst she truly treasured this honour, and was proud of her achievements, she always found pleasure and enjoyment in bookbinding, which she considered a reward in itself. I was lucky enough to personally benefit from June’s first efforts when she bound my BSc Honours thesis in leather for me in 1975 and then for her to gift me one of her superb later efforts more recently.
Throughout her life June enjoyed and participated where possible in ‘the Arts’. Growing up in Leeds during the WWII was quite fortunate, as it wasn’t bombed like other large cities in the UK. In her teen years, she discovered art, music, architecture, theatre and more. There was a lot happening in Leeds - plays, operas, concerts, art exhibitions, etc which were restricted in other parts of the UK. June continued this lifelong love of the arts, sharing her knowledge and interest with all who would listen. Where possible she participated, singing with the Qld University Musical Society choir and later with the St Lukes choir. She regularly attended QPAC for opera, music and ballet and was also a frequent visitor to the Qld Art Gallery. Only a few years ago, she attended the Iris Van Herpen exhibition with family, marvelling at the fashion design, the cutting-edge technology used and the interplay between fashion, culture, architecture and technology.
Looking back at her life, June realised that she was often the only woman in many situations. She was the only woman in her class at Cambridge, in her group in London and at UQ. It was not something she was aware of at the time – she simply got on with what needed to be done.
Whatever life threw at her, June lived a full and wondrous life, and she greatly improved the lives of her family and many people in her community. I will miss her.
Dr David Bedford