Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arrived in Australia aged 23 years

Son of Vincent O. Taylor and Maria Jane Taylor of 'Trevons', High Street, Selsey, Sussex, England formerly of St Michael's Place, West Retford, Nottinghamshire, England

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

He was the only child of Dr Vincent Octavius Taylor and Maria Jane Wilmhurst. He was baptised 16 Oct 1891 in Bangalore, India.

His mother had been born in Retford. In 1881 she was living with her father an ironmonger, and employer and mother, at 7 Market Square, Retford. Although the circumstances and locations are unknown, Maria Jane married in 1888.

Marriages Dec 1887   
Taylor
 Vincent Octavius
 
 Faringdon
 2c
579
  
WILMSHURST
 Maria Jane
 
 Faringdon
 2c
579
 
Faringdon spans the boundaries of the counties of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

They obviously went to India, the circumstances unknown, as their son was born there. In the 1901 and 1911 census, Maria Jane is married, with no sign of her husband, and was living with Edwin under her father’s roof in Retford. Her father is recorded as being a land agent. In 1911, Edwin was recorded as a student and is known to have attended Retford Grammar School. Sometime after this he emigrated to Australia.

On 20 Oct 1914 Edwin embarked on HMAT Euripides, Sydney with the A I F 4th Bn. He was at Gallipoli in the Battle of Lone Pine. Lone Pine was an action that featured one of the most famous assaults of the Gallipoli campaign. The attack was planned as a diversion for the Australian and New Zealand units that were to breakout from the Anzac perimeter by capturing the heights of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. At 5.30 pm on 6 August 1915, the Australian artillery barrage lifted and from concealed trenches in no man’s land the 1st Australian Brigade charged towards the Turkish trenches. The troops paused on reaching the Turkish trenches, finding that many were covered by timber roofs. Some fired, bombed and bayoneted from above, some found their way inside and others ran on past to the open communications and support trenches behind. Others advanced as far as "the Cup" which was where Turkish support units were located and from where the Turks counter-attacked. By nightfall, most of the enemy front line was in Australian hands and outposts had been established in former Turkish communication trenches. The Australian Engineers dug a safe passage across no man’s land so that reinforcements could enter the captured positions without being exposed to Turkish fire. Having captured the Turkish trenches, the Australians now tried to hold what they had taken while the Turks desperately and determinedly tried to throw the Australians out. From nightfall on 6 August until the night of 9 August a fierce battle ensued underground in the complex maze of Turkish tunnels. The Australians succeeded in drawing the whole of the immediate Turkish reserve. Six Australian battalions suffered nearly 2,300 killed and wounded at Lone Pine. Seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest number ever awarded to an Australian division for one action.

Inside Retford Town Hall is written a contemporary note giving details of the memorial including the following explanation : - The symbolism of the Retford War memorial must be understood before the memorial can by appreciated. The idea of the main structure is that of the " Roman Milestone" only reversed, as the places inscribed are the sites of the principal actions where the men commemorated laid down their lives , and the distances computed from the memorial. The lantern forming the top stage embodies the mediaeval custom of maintaining a 'Lantern of the dead' to be lighted every evening in perpetuity and kept burning until dawn in token that the memory of the departed is ever present, during the hours of darkness as well as in the daytime. Designed by Leonard W. Barnard (of Cheltenham), built by R.L. Boulton & Sons; unveiled 14th September 1921 by Sir Frederick Milner, dedication by The Venerable The Archdeacon of Newark, Egbert Hacking.

Historic information source-Retford Times, 16th September 1921.

Some research by Colin Dannatt.

Nottinghamshire Australians Virtual

416,809 Australians enlisted voluntarily during the Great War (conscription was never imposed). 61,527 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner. ‘We Diggers were a race apart.’ wrote Captain George Miller (48th Battalion AIF). ‘Long separation from Australia had seemed to cut us completely away from the land of our birth. The longer a man served, the fewer letters he got, the more he was forgotten. Our only home was our unit, and that was constantly being decimated, and rebuilt by strangers. Pride in ourselves, in face of a world of friends and enemies, was our sustaining force.’ Valuable research by John Paskulich from Perth, Western Australia has helped establish that a large contingent of men with strong connections to Nottinghamshire served with Australian forces between 1914 and 1918 and that 109 lost their lives. This section commemorates their sacrifice and acknowledges Australia's huge contribution to Britain's First World War victory. David Nunn

 The bronze 'Bullecourt Digger', created by Melbourne sculptor Peter Corlett, stands in the Australian Memorial Park just outside Bullecourt, along the Rue des Australiens and along the side road to Reincourt-les-Cagnicourt. In April and May 1917, the AIF lost 10,000 soldiers, killed or wounded in the fields the digger surveys.