LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Albert Lawrence Deane TAYLOR
Service No: 3193
Born: Williamstown VIC, September 1895
Enlisted in the Army: 7 June 1916
Unit: No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Air Operations, France, 20 May 1918, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Vignacourt British Cemetery, Vignacourt, Picardie, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles and Elizabeth Taylor, of 4, Ferguson St., Williamstown, Victoria, Australia. Native of Williamstown, Victoria
Place of Association: Williamstown VIC
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Jones (1) was again attacked by six triplanes while on duty on May 20th; A. L. D. Taylor, his usual observer, was this time with him. The RE.8 had ranged a 6-inch howitzer battery on some enemy guns, and was about to watch “fire for effect,” when the trip lanes appeared. Taylor was shot dead in the fight; Jones was wounded, but managed to fly his machine (2) home. By that time Jones had, while on reconnaissance, engaged the enemy six times in less than three weeks, being on five of those occasions accompanied by Taylor. The RE.8s, though slower than the German scouting machines, and generally at a disadvantage in the matter of height, were, when well-handled, no mean antagonists, as will appear from the combats above-mentioned. Moreover the enemy scouts, brave enough against a solitary two-seater, were always wary of the RE.8’s in company.
(1) Air Marshal Sir George Jones KBE CB DFC, Chief of the Air Staff May 1942 – 1952; Born Rushworth VIC, 22 November 1896; Died Melbourne VIC, 24 August 1992
(2) RE8 aircraft B8876
Extract from Cutlack, F.M. (Frederic Morley) The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War 1914-8, Angus and Robertson Ltd Sydney, 1941 – Pages 265-6
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, TAYLOR A L D
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Book AIR 1/969 page 295, 278709
Bibliography:
Muller, P. (Peter) and Hutchinson, J. (John) Secrets Revealed: a brief history of No. 3 Squadron RAAF, Lutheran Publishing House Adelaide SA 5000, 1991
Wrigley, H.N. (Henry Neilsen) (6) The Battle Below: Being the history of No. 3 Squadron AFC, Errol G. Knox Sydney NSW, 1935