Joseph Gillott

Joseph Gillott was born Sheffield, England, 1851, the son of Richard Gillott and Harriet Cawthawn.

He studied music at the Royal Conservatorium of Music in Leipzig, Germany and worked as a music teacher, concert musician and composer. He migrated from England to Melbourne, Australia in March/April 1881 aboard the P&O steamers KAISAR-I-HIND and ROSETTA to join two cousins already living in the colony of Victoria. He spent twenty years in Melbourne teaching music, giving concerts, composing and writing for the press. His body of work includes songs on patriotic themes and the subject of Federation. Notable works include “Sons of the Southern Seas.” Gillott achieved success as a teacher, and it was reported that “Joseph Gillott makes out of the piano pure and simple more than any other teacher of music in Melbourne. He makes £1200 a year from teaching.” (Table Talk 31 August 1888)

Gillott returned to England in 1900, reportedly after suffering a breakdown and receiving medical advice to take a long sea voyage for his health (Argus 3 March 1900). On 3rd October 1900 he played the accompaniment to his composition “Australia’s Cherished Dream: The Federal Song” at the banquet held to honour the Earl of Hopetoun on his departure to take up his appointment as Governor General of the new Commonwealth. Resident in England, in a 1901 Gillott wrote an article for the Melbourne publication Table Talk and stated “I was so long there that practically I count myself, and am looked upon here, as an Australian.”

He died Sheffield, England, 26 January 1939, aged 87.

An archive of Gillot’s printed and manuscript music, published and unpublished, mainly songs and one musical, together with programs, some correspondence and a scrapbook he compiled are housed in the National Library, along with a transcript and CD-ROM of the journal of his voyage to Australia in March-April 1881.