Captain Hugh Taylor

Campaign:

World War 1

Died:

18.12.1914

2SG
Aged 33
KIA at 1st Ypres.
Commemorated at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France. E. 7
Hugh joined the Scots Guards in 1904, and was promoted Lieutenant in 1905. In 1911, they were residing at 4 Herbert Crescent, Chelsea, London, SW., Their only son was born in 1909, Thomas Brian Geoffrey Taylor, but he died at an early age. There was a butler and six servants employed in the house.
During that first Christmas Truce, the body of Captain Hugh Taylor was located. On January 2, 1915, the Newcastle Daily Journal carried an eye witness account of Captain Taylor’s death from a wounded Scots Guard Private named Power. He recounted the initial attack: “We had proceeded about 50 yards when the enemy turned on us a deadly and disastrous machine and rifle fire. Many of the Scots Guards fell but the others rushed forward undaunted ... it was in this charge that Captain Taylor was wounded. We were nearing the German line when the officer was noticed to fall. Two men went back to fetch him but when they found him, he shouted ‘Go on, leave me. I am all right. Look after yourselves.’ The men obeyed ... He was never afterwards seen by any of the men in our battalion. The general impression among the men was that the wound proved fatal, or that he was taken prisoner and died subsequently.”
“He was a brave soldier and a good officer,” added Private Power, “and we were all grieved to lose him. He was a real hero.”
Captain Taylor was mentioned in Sir John French’s dispatches dated January 14, 1915 “for gallant and distinguished conduct on this and other occasions.”