Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Wednesday 17 January 1951, page 11


Death Of Miss Nora Kyffin Thomas

News of the death of Miss Nora Kyffin Thomas, a for-mer well-known South Aus-tralian violinist and third

daughter of the late Sir Robert and Lady Kyffin Thomas, has been received from Lon-don. After a brief illness. Miss Kyffin Thomas died on Satur-day at the Carmelite Convent, Exmouth, Devon, England, where she had lived as a nun since 1925. Miss Kyffin Thomas, who was a person of high intellectual at-tainments, as well as very musi-cally gifted, began her early musical career at the School of Music, Adelaide, under Mr. H. Heinecke. From the school Miss Kyffin Thomas went to Berlin for four years to study the violin, and later returned to do private teaching and concert work in Adelaide. AT CONSERVATORIUM She went to Germany again in 1912 and studied under Huber-mann in Leipzig until just be-fore the outbreak of World War I. Returning to Adelaide again, she joined the staff of the Elder Conservatorium where she de-voted much of her time to chamber music and teaching the violin. With the late Mr. H. Brewster Jones, Miss Kyffin Thomas formed the Chamber Music So-ciety of SA which gave regular recitals to Adelaide audiences for many years. Miss Kyffin Thomas left again for Europe in 1923, and after a month in Italy she went to England where she entered the Carmelite Convent, Ex-mouth. She is survived by her two brothers, Messrs. G. and Owen Kyffin Thomas, and a sister, Miss Kathleen Kyffin Thomas, Divisional Commandant of Red Cross in SA. Her two elder sisters, Mrs. D. D. Harbison, formerly of Bowral, NSW and Mrs. Leonard Hack, formerly of Prospect, died in recent years.