Louise Hanson Dyer

Who was Louise Hanson Dyer?

Louise Berta Mosson Hanson-Dyer was an Australian music publisher and patron of the arts.

She was born Louise Berta Mosson Smith in Melbourne, the daughter of Louis Smith, a medical practitioner and parliamentarian. Her brother Harold Gengoult Smith was to become Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 1932.

She was a talented pianist, studying at the Albert Street Conservatorium then from 1907–08 in London and Edinburgh.

She married James Dyer, a Scottish businessman 27 years her senior, in 1911.

She had an active social life, being president of the Presbyterial Ladies' Old Scholars in 1919–21 and 1924–26. She was also an active member of the Alliance Française.

She was a generous patron of the arts who organised private concerts of baroque, especially French, music. She was the major force in establishing the British Music Society of Victoria in 1921. In 1924 she helped John Shaw Neilson publish his first major book of poetry and later donated £10,000 to help found the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

They moved to London 1927, then Paris in 1928.