Lieutenant-Colonel George Taylor
5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

[I] experienced a deep feeling of gratitude to my officers and men. I looked upon them as my sons. They had never failed me, and thank God, they can go back in due course to their families.

(Quoted in Daily Telegraph, 25 Jul 1994, 21)

Born on 17 September 1905 in Blundellsands, Lancashire, George Taylor formerly worked on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange and belonged to the Territorial Army officer before taking a regular commission with the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1929. He participated in the failed Norway campaign of 1940 and afterward served as a staff officer in Madagascar and India, which he regarded as “wasting the war.”

By 1944, he had been posted to the 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment as second-in-command. Although nearly forty with little combat experience, he was assigned commanding officer of the 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in mid-July. Two predecessors had been killed in action and the troops were disorganized and demoralized. The regimental history stated: “He at once addressed himself to the restoration of confidence in the battalion, for no unit could suffer the losses that had been sustained by the Fifth, particularly the heavy casualties among the officers, without becoming considerably shaken.”

Taylor led the 5th DCLI until the end of the war and earned the D.S.O. and Bar. For destroying a squadron German tanks during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1945, the citation for the latter award read: “It would be hard to find a better instance of intrepid leadership even in this phase of the operations in Holland. Lt Col Taylor knew that the risks were great … This exploit should go down to history as one of the finest in the history of the Army.”

After the end of the war in Europe, Taylor commanded a battalion in Malaysia then by 1950 was a brigadier in Hong Kong. He commanded the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade during the Korean War, most notably in the Battle of Kapyong. He was relieved after Operation Commando in October 1951. He would later command the 49th Brigade in Kenya during the Mau Mau Rebellion. He received the CBE in 1955 and retired from the army three years later.

Taylor published his memoir Infantry Colonel in 1990 and died in Southampton, Hampshire, on 17 July 1994.