Frederick William TAYLOR
Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls.
Frederick Taylor, known as Fred, was the second child of Albert Taylor and his wife Bertha (née Quinion). Albert and Bertha married in 1910 and moved to 258 Abingdon Road, on the corner of Sunningwell Road, with Albert’s parents, where they ran the grocery and Post Office. Bertha’s younger brother Richard Quinion was killed in action in Belgium in May 1915 and is commemorated on the First World War memorial in St John the Evangelist Church in New Hinksey.
Albert and Bertha had five children: Kenneth (born 1910); Frederick (born 31 August 1912); Richard (1915, seven months after the death of his uncle, for whom he was named); Kathleen (1917, known by her second name of Joan); and Brenda (1923). Kenneth and Fred were baptised together at St John the Evangelist Church on 27 October 1912.
It is likely that the children attended New Hinksey School. Fred and his brothers Kenneth and Richard went on to the City of Oxford High School for Boys on George Street. Fred was there from the ages of ten to sixteen, 1922 to 1928. He was sporty, played football, and was a member of the school’s unbeaten Under 15 cricket team in 1927.
On leaving school, Fred joined the family business at 258 Abingdon Road. The 1939 register, taken on 29 September, four weeks after the Second World War broke out, records him working as a ‘grocer and assistant sub postmaster’ to his father Albert. He continued playing football for Cold Harbour in his spare time, as well as ice hockey. He was also in the Civil Air Guard, which was formed in July 1938 to provide government-subsidised flying lessons, in the expectation that members would join the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve if there was a war.
In December 1940, when he was 28, Fred married a seamstress, Ivy Chance. Ivy and her family lived in Carey Close, off Five Mile Drive on the outskirts of North Oxford, but they had close ties with New Hinksey going back several generations.
As expected, Fred joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and served as a Pilot with 48 Squadron, operating out of Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. On 5 or 6 September 1941, Fred’s coastal patrol plane, an Avro Anson I, was involved in an attempted air-sea rescue. He was flying it very low when it crashed into a davit (a crane-like device) on board the minesweeper HMS Hebe near the island of Harris. Fred and the other three crew members were all killed. Fred was 29.
Fred and Ivy’s daughter Jean was born on 3 February 1942, five months after her father’s death. Fred was one of three New Hinksey men who died before their daughters were born, the others being James Lynes and Albert Harris.
Fred is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Englefield Green, near Windsor, and on the Oxford City Second World War Roll of Honour which is in the church of St Michael at the Northgate on Cornmarket.
A commemoration service for former pupils of the City of Oxford High School for Boys was held at Christ Church Cathedral on 27 March 1947. Fred’s name is on the order of service with those of three other New Hinksey men: James Lynes, John Rowley, and John Turner. All four are named on the school's war memorial.
Fred's brother Richard (known as Dick) served as an optician with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war, but survived.
Fred's parents Albert and Bertha Taylor continued to run the Post Office and shop at 258 Abingdon Road until the early 1960s.
Fred’s widow Ivy never remarried; she died in Oxford in 1990. Jean, their daughter, died in 2016. Jean’s daughter Clare Nicholls, Fred’s granddaughter, displays Fred’s photograph and his medals in her living room, “to commemorate my brave grandfather.”
Research by Siobhan Lancaster; with thanks to Clare Nicholls, Fred's granddaughter; Susie Chance, Ivy Taylor’s niece; and Lesley Dewhurst.
The Taylor siblings in around 1928; (left to right) Richard (Dick), Kathleen, Kenneth, Fred and Brenda. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred Taylor and the unbeaten City of Oxford Boys High School Under 15 cricket team, 1927. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred Taylor with his ice hockey team, early 1930s. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred Taylor with the Cold Arbour Football Club, 1934-5. Image from Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 1 (Robert Boyd Publications, 1998). (Click image to close)
Fred and Ivy Taylor soon after their marriage, 1941. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred Taylor in RAF uniform. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred's younger brother Dick during the war. Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
Fred’s parents Albert and Bertha Taylor in the garden of 258 Abingdon Road c.1955. Image from Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 2 (Robert Boyd Publications 1999). (Click image to close)
Image courtesy of Clare Nicholls. (Click image to close)
