Branch of Service

Air Force

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

13/11/1939

Place of Enlistment

Richmond NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

18/09/1920

Place of Birth

Sydney NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Indooroopilly, Queensland (previously Gorman House, Braddon ACT)

School(s) Attended

Telopea Park Primary School (-1931), Telopea Park Intermediate High School [original Canberra High School] (1932-).

Occupation

Commonwealth public servant

Next of Kin

Son of Augustus Selwyn Taylor, public servant, and Dulcie Mary Taylor, of Grant Crescent, Griffith and later of Indooroopilly, Queensland. Engaged to Joyce Scott, sister of Pilot Eric Scott, a Canberra serviceman killed in action during the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.

Burial Place

Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany: grave 15.E.2.

Service Number

6201

Final Rank

Sergeant

Final Unit

460 Squadron RAF

Died 25-26 July 1942 aged 21 years, in action over Duisburg, Germany.

Canberra High School Memorial Tablet
Roll of Honour Indooroopilly (Queensland)

Reichswald Forest War Cemetery was created after the Second World War when burials were brought in from all over western Germany and is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the country.

Taylor was the wireless operator/ air gunner in a Wellington bomber MK4 (Z1462) in 460 Squadron RAAF (part of Bomber Command), flying out of Breighton in Yorkshire. According to two crew members who survived the crash of Taylor's aircraft, they had jettisoned their bombs over the target at Duisberg on the night of 25 July 1942 and were returning home when they were attacked twice by enemy night fighters. In the first attack Taylor was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. The plane was set on fire by the second attack and the captain ordered the crew to abandon. Only two men were able to bale out before the plane crashed. Taylor was initially buried at Lingen before being re-interred at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

Taylor worked for the Public Service Board in Canberra before enlisting and was a well-known local tennis player. He trained in Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme before being posted to 460 Squadron in the UK.

Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War 2 nominal roll. <http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/>
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Debt of Honour Register. <http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/>
AWM Roll of Honour and Roll of Honour Circulars <http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp> NOT on AWM Roll of Honour database.
Canberra High School. Roll of Honour 1939-1945. [Plaque in school]
Canberra High School. Albums compiled for student project researching names on School Roll of Honour, 1985.
Canberra High School. Unveiling of Memorial Tablet. Friday, 25th April 1947. [Programme]
Miriam Nauenberg. Index to Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Typescript compiled for the Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Volume (a): Boys. Photocopy MS held by Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
Alan Fewster (ed.), 'Capital Correspondent: The Canberra Letters of Edwin Charles 1936-37', 2002
John Watson, '460 Squadron (RAAF), Pilots and Crews'
The Canberra Times - 15 August 1942, 9 July 1988
NAA RecordSearch - Series A9301 (RAAF Personnel files of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and other ranks, 1921-1948)