Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : 2nd Lieutenant

Army Number : 2386

Unit : 10th Bn, 9th Bn

Biography :

Arnold Taylor was educated at Shaftsbury Grammar School and Denstone College, and at the latter was for two years in the OTC. He was a keen hockey player and was a member of the Loughborough club, playing for Leicestershire in the last pre-war match against Nottinghamshire. On 2.10.1914 Arnold was in the ranks of 9th Bn The Royal Fusiliers on Epsom Downs, Arnold being listed as Private 3286. From the 4th Public Schools Battalion (Royal Fusiliers) in January 1915 Arnold was commissioned into The Leicestershire Regiment. In November 1915 he was in 10th Battalion and later transferred to 9th Bn. On 12.7.1916, when Arnold's battalion was holding on to captured German trenches near Contalmaison and under constant bombardment, he was killed by shellfire, aged 22 years.
In a letter to Arnold's father, 2nd Lieut. William Batchelor, a fellow officer, wrote "Dear Sir, A few lines to let you know how very deeply I sympathise with you in the loss of your son…It happened about midday. He had just come back to the trench after helping to bring the wounded in when a heavy shell burst nearby and a piece of it went through his body. He only lived a few minutes…I am confident he did not linger long. I am writing this because he was the best chum I had out here and just before going into action we exchanged addresses in case anything happened to either of us. He was the most conscientious subaltern in the company."

Arnold's brother Pte John William Taylor serving with 31st Bn Canadian Infantry was killed in September 1916 and his brother Gerard Bardsley Taylor serving with 11th Leicesters was killed in 1918. His brother Lt Pryce Taylor, who served with The Royal Fusiliers, The Leicesters, The Machine Gun Corps and The Royal Engineers, survived the war but was killed as a result of a motorcar accident in 1927. Their sister Josephine served with the Red Cross in France during the war. Their father died in 1919.

Arnold is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial Panels 2C and 3A, on the memorial at All Saints Church, Loughborough, and on the Roll of Honour of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers as well as on the Carillon Tower, Loughborough. The largest bell in the Carillon itself was given by the Taylor family in memory of the three Taylor brothers lost in the war. A bell was also cast to commemorate all three brothers for the church the Taylor family attended, Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street, Loughborough. When the church closed in 1998 the bell was given to Palayamcottai Cathedral, Tamil Nadu, India. Taylor's Bellfoundry also cast a bell in Arnold's memory which is now at The Royal Anglian Regiment's Army Reserve Centre in Leicester.

For more information visit: http://www.carillontower.org.uk/tigers

This page was last edited on 31.1.2020.

Date of Birth : 23.1.1894

Place of Birth : Loughborough, Leics

Date of Death : 12.7.1916

Place of Death : Contalmaison, France

Period of Service : 1914-16

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : France