Ronald Roy Bell Taylor was born on the 4th May 1898 in East
Dulwich, London, the son of George Baldwin Taylor and Christina
Maria R. (nee Bell).
As told by his son Mark Taylor :-
“The recruiting officer asked me how old I was? I said, 16
sir. He said, well come back when you are 18. So I walked
around the quadrangle and came back to him. I am 18 now sir!
Good he said.. sign here. Here is your shilling.”
He ended up running the dispensary at the base in Poona. He
stayed on until 1921 and so came home a 23 year old.
Ronald emigrated to Australia in 1925 with his young family of
2 children. Eventually he divorced his wife towards the end of
WW2. In 1949 he married my mother (another divorcee) and I
came along in 1953, when he was 55.
He went on to become very successful in business here and died
from smoking related lung cancer on the 7/3/1979.
He claims to have been with the crew who went to
Mesopotamia .. and in 1973 he was in the UK and wrote to the
MOD to get his service record to prove it. A letter came back
(which I still have) saying that the majority of records were
destroyed in the blitz. He was not mentioned on the deal roll for
Mesopotamia.. and that saddened him a lot. I have no idea what
he saw over there.. he contracted malaria and this dogged him
the rest of his days. He didn’t talk too much about his service, but often said..
“War changes men!”
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