Clara Millicent Taylor (12 December 1885 – 10 January 1940) was a research chemist and educator from New Zealand.^[1][2]

Clara Taylor was born in Stratford, Taranaki. She was one of seven children of Robert Taylor, a farmer from England, and his New Zealand-born wife Mary, née Morrison. One of her siblings was Lyra Taylor, who became a lawyer in Australia.^[3][4] Another sister, Portia, became a doctor in England, and Taylor's only brother became a barrister.^[5][6] Three other siblings died in infancy.^[7]

Taylor attended Ngaere School and Stratford District High School, where she was dux of the school.^{[1][8][9][10]} In 1899, while at high school, she won one of six Queen's Scholarships, but was too young to leave high school within the two-year time period specified. The scholarship was worth £40 per year for five years.^[11] In 1904, while at Victoria College, Wellington (now Victoria University of Wellington), she applied to have her scholarship extended.^[12] Taylor studied chemistry at Victoria College from 1902 to 1910,^[13] graduating with a M.A. (Hons) in chemistry.^[1][14] In 1908, Taylor was the only student at Victoria College to apply for a government research scholarship worth £100 per year plus laboratory fees. She stated that she would be researching 'The Utilisation of Fats'. Professors Harry Kirk and Thomas H. Easterfield supported Taylor's nomination for the scholarship.^[15][16]

Taylor trained as a teacher in Wellington, then taught at Chilton House, a private girls' school in the city, and at public schools.^[10]

Taylor moved to England in 1911 to undertake research at Newnham College, Cambridge, working with William Jackson Pope.^[17] In 1912 she became a science teacher at Clapham High School. For eight years (1913–1921) she was senior science mistress at St Paul’s Girls’ School, London.^[18] She was headmistress of Northampton School for Girls for 5 years (1921–1926) before becoming headmistress of Redland High School, Bristol from 1926 to 1940.^[19][20] In 1930, she and her sister Portia Thomas collaborated to write a school textbook on chemistry.

She was president of the Association of Women Science Teachers, 1925–26, and vice-president for 1927.^[21]

She died suddenly on 10 January 1940, at her sister Portia's house in Yorkshire.^[22][23] Former students of Redland High School set up a memorial fund in Taylor's name, to provide a small grant for students leaving the school to begin a career.^[24]