Name
Thomas Horace Taylor
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/10/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
22325
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POELCAPELLE BRITISH CEMETERY
XV. E. 5.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Essendon War Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Essendon
Pre War
Thomas was born on the 31st March 1891 in Essendon, Herts. Son of John and Rose Taylor (Fowler). Baptised on the 6th September 1891. He was baptised Horace Thomas but used the name Thomas or Tom in later life.
He was employed by Messer’s Norton & Son, Builders, of Essendon. The 1901 Census shows Thomas aged 10 years and living with his Widowed Mother and 4 Sisters in Essendon, Herts. and 1911 Census shows Thomas aged 20 years and living with his Widowed Mother and Sister Louisa, in Essendon, Herts. His occupation is given as Farm Labourer.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford in to the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He died on the 30th October 1917, shot by a sniper.
An article in the Herts advertiser 1st December 1917, reads: “Essendon Double loss. Sad news reached Essendon that Corporal Thomas Taylor of the Bedfordshire Regiment was shot by a sniper on 30th October 1917. He was the only son of Mrs Taylor and worked for some time before the war for Messer’s Norton & Son, of Essendon. He had seen a good deal of active service. He was wounded in 1916 and returned to France in late March. Much Sympathy is felt for his Widowed Mother and Sister’s.”
The double loss referred to in the article would have been the loss of his good friend and work colleague Private Arthur Scales of the Royal Sussex Regiment, killed on the 24th September 1917.
Acknowledgments
Sue and Colin Rees, Stuart Osborne
