Geoffrey England Taylor

Rank 
Second Lieutenant
Regiment 
Royal Field Artillery
Date of death 
26 September 1918
Age of death 
20
Address 
Crabthorne
Snakes Lane
Woodford Green
Woodford
IG8 0DE
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Born on 23rd September 1898 at Woodford, son of Frank England (Stock Broker) and Emily Taylor. 1901: With his parents at “Cherison” Higham Road, Woodford Green. In 1909 his father died. 1911: A Scholar with his family at “Crabthorne” Snakes Lane, Woodford Green. He attended Chigwell School where he was Head Boy and Captain of the Cricket and Football First X1s.

Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery from 3rd November 1917, and arrived in France on 19th December 1917, going on to serve with a Trench Mortar Unit in the Ypres Sector. He was part of the advance to the Canal du Nord with 33 Brigade when he was wounded on 26th September 1918 near Honnecourt Wood, while taking ammunition to his Battery under heavy fire. He died nearby from those wounds. 

Taylor trained at No.1 Officer Cadet School (St John’s Wood), Shoeburyness, Larkhill and Boyton, where he met fellow Cadet Thomas MacGreevy who was a poet. Long after the war, version 3 of his poem “Nocturne of St Eloi 1918” was specifically dedicated to Geoffrey Taylor. 

Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian

Sources:

Ancestry.com