HALL OF FAME

Elsie Irene Burton (Sister Lois) (1905 - 1986)

2018 Inductee

Student 1919 - 1923

Elsie Irene Burton was born on 1 July 1905 and came from a large family who owned and worked a dairy farm at Wanora. She attended Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School from 1919 until 1923. Ms Burton won the History and English prize in her Senior year. After completing her secondary education, Ms Burton completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland and also gained her Licentiate of Theology. She taught as a Physical Education teacher before being professed as a Sister of the Sacred Advent in 1938 and took the name Sister Lois.

As a Novice, Sister Lois taught Physical Education, in her habit at St Margaret’s School in Brisbane for a short time. She was then well equipped to follow her interest in education, and for some twenty years she taught continuously in a number of the Sisters’ Schools, as a teacher of Sister-in-Charge.

Sister Lois was appointed to St Aidan’s, Corinda, as Sister-in-Charge in 1948. In 1955, she was appointed Sister-in-Charge of St Anne’s School (now the Cathedra School of Anne’s) in Townsville, a position she held until 1963. In 1967, Sister Lois was elected Mother Superior of the Sisters of the Sacred Advent, an Office she held for 9 years. In that position, she became Patron of St Margaret’s Old Girls’ Association.

Sister Lois was a foundation member, by invitation, of the Australian College of Education and a life member of the James Cook University College Council. For her services to education she was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in person, in 1970.

Sister Lois passed away on 30 July 1986, aged 81 years. In her own words: “No task is too humble to perform; no goal is too high to aim for. Never ask anyone to do something you are no prepared to do yourself.”