Marie Byles

(1900–1979)

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Marie Byles was the second great-grand-niece of Esther Copley and the eldest child and only daughter of Ida Margaret (née Unwin) and Cyril Beuzeville Byles. Born in Ashton upon Mersey, Cheshire, England, she migrated to Australia at eleven. Her younger brothers were David John Byles and Baldur Unwin Byles (1904–1975).

Her parents were Unitarian Universalists, Fabian socialists, and pacifists. Her mother, Ida Margaret Unwin, a suffragette and former student at the Slade School of Fine Art, impressed upon Marie the necessity of financial independence for women. Her father, Cyril Beuzeville Byles, a railway signal engineer, involved his children in campaigns opposing restricted public access to walking land.

The family moved to Australia when Cyril became Chief Signals Engineer with the New South Wales Government Railways, designing the signal system for railway electrification. They built Chilworth at Beecroft in 1913 and a seaside cottage at Palm Beach on Sunrise Hill.

Educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ Colleges at Croydon and Pymble, Marie was head prefect and dux at Pymble. She graduated from the University of Sydney (B.A., 1921; LL.B., 1924), winning the Rose Scott Prize in private international law. Admitted as a solicitor on 6 June 1924, she worked for Henry Davis & Co. until 1927, studying economics at night and writing on the injustices of capitalism.

Among the first women law graduates at Sydney—and the first woman in New South Wales to establish her own legal practice—she opened her Eastwood office when female graduates were generally limited to clerkships. She practised there until 1970.

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Travel and Mountaineering

​After four years of work, Marie saved enough to travel (1927–28), sailing on a Norwegian cargo boat and later publishing By Cargo Boat and Mountain (1931). She climbed in Britain, Norway, Canada, and attempted Mount Cook in 1935, failing to summit due to poor weather.

In 1938 she led an expedition to Mount Sansato in western China near the Tibetan border, travelling through Burma, Vietnam, and China, at times under military escort. Often staying in temples, she encountered Asian religions firsthand. A collapsed foot arch ended her climbing career, leading her toward meditation and spiritual study.

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Buddhism and Spiritual Leadership

​During the 1940s she explored Quakerism but was refused membership because of her Buddhist commitments. She travelled widely in India (including the Himalayas), Burma (three visits), and Japan (two visits), experiences that resulted in four books on Buddhism and helped introduce and promote Buddhism in New South Wales.

On 20 May 1951 she helped organise the first Vesak celebration by non-Asian Australian Buddhists. In 1952 she and Leo Berkeley helped form the Buddhist Society in Sydney, an informal group for studying Dhamma. In 1956 she secured bushland at West Pennant Hills for Australia’s first Buddhist Vihara and Meditation Centre, managing the legal acquisition without charge.

Her books include Footprints of Gautama the Buddha (researched in North India in 1954 and still in print) and Journey into Burmese Silence, based on her Vipassana practice. She lectured at the Theosophical Society, broadcast on Radio 2GB, and preached Dhamma at the Sydney Unitarian Church. In 1960 she formed an inclusive meditation group, later embracing Mahayana Buddhism’s emphasis on kindness and compassion.

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Conservation and Legacy

​Marie is also remembered for her conservation work. The Bush Club, founded on 19 September 1939 largely through her initiative (with Paddy Pallin), welcomed those excluded from more rigorous bushwalking clubs, valuing love of the bush, protection of nature, and fellowship.

Her efforts contributed significantly to the establishment of Bouddi National Park in 1935; the Marie Byles Lookout commemorates her role.

She spent her later years at Ahimsa, her bushland home at Cheltenham. On her death in November 1959, her extensive Buddhist library—including a full English Tipitaka—was bequeathed to the Fisher Library, University of Sydney. Her manuscript, Buddhism in New South Wales, is held in the Marie Byles Collection at the Mitchell Library.

Through law, mountaineering, conservation, and spiritual leadership, Marie Byles lived a life of independence, conviction, and intellectual courage—an extraordinary descendant of the Beuzeville line.

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