A Great War Military Cross group to Captain Taylor 23rd Bn Royal Fusiliers / Wounded Delville Wood July 1916

GV Military Cross - Contemporarilay engraved 'Capt H A Taylor'

1914/15 Star, correctly impressed Capt H. A.Taylor R. FUS

British War Medal, correctly impressed Capt H.A. Taylor

Victory Medal, correctly impressed Capt H.A. Taylor

GV 1935 Jubilee

GVI 1937 Coronation Medal

Swing mounted as worn.

Condition EF

Sold with miniature set. 

Henry Augustus Taylor was born in 1892 in Joppa, Edinburgh. The son of Wardle Watson Taylor, who was a Superintendent for the East Coast Railways. 

Taylor was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh. He matriculated to Edinburgh University to study Dentistry. He became a member of the University OTC and played as part of the Rugby XV in the 1908-9 season. He had throughout his life excelled in all sports. 

When war broke out, he joined the 23rd Bn Royal Fusiliers ( Sportman's Battalion) as a Private but was commissioned in November. In June 1915, he was promoted to Captain. He landed with his bn at Bologne on November 16, 1915. 

Taylor was wounded on the Somme during the Battle of Delville Wood. I believe this will have been on the 27th of July 1916. Ray Westlake, in his book ' British Battalions on the Somme' notes;

' In action(27/7) passed through Princess Street and on to the final objective just inside the northern edge of Delville. Regimental historian H.C. O'Neill records 288 casualties and the Battalion coming out of Delville Wood smoking German cigars'. 

He was awarded the Military Cross in the New Year Honours in 1918

Taylor was wounded for a second time on the 24th of March 1918, when Eaucourt l'Abbaye was lost during the German Spring Offensive. 

Henry survived the war and resumed his career as a Dental Surgeon.