Born at Maidstone, Kent.
Enlisted at London on the 11th of January 1844.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Druggist.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Medora" on the 27th of April 1854. From Private to Corporal: 19th of June 1854.
Wounded in action at Balaclava and taken prisoner of war.
Lummis and Wynn state "afterwards exchanged", but the Sebastopol clasp roll shows him as "Since dead". It is not stated if whilst still in Russian hands. The Balaclava clasp roll shows him as "Killed in action on the 25th of October 1854."
From the Regimental History, by an unknown writer who took part in the Charge:
"Corporal Taylor on my left, mounted on a horse either startled or mad with the noise of the firing - couldn't stop him at all; he had no control over his mouth.
He shot past me like a rocket, bang into the heart of the Russian cavalry in the rear of the guns, which opened up and then closed upon him.
I heard he was wounded and taken prisoner."
He was shown in the official "Casualty List" as "Wounded and prisoner-of-war", but he is not shown as having rejoined the regiment with the remainder of the prisoners in October of 1855.
His name appears on a list furnished by 597 Thomas Perry, 8th Hussars, (see his record) and on being sent in a letter to the Adjutant-General of the Troops in the Crimea via a Royal Engineer officer who was a fellow prisoner at Simpheropol, was published in the "London Gazette" on the 1st of June 1855.
This showed that (although no particular date of death was given) he had died, either in the Hospital at Simpheropol or on the way there.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol.
Possibly killed in action on the 25th of October 1854 but probably died in Russian captivity shortly after, either in the Hospital at Simpheropol or on the way there.
[PB, December 2013: Check the comment in Dutton that he was married to "Hannah" and had a son, Charles. Dutton says Hannah was struck off the list of the Patriotic Fund for "immorality", and Charles was sent to the Barnet School on 13.12.1855 at the age of 5 years 2 months.]