Charles Richard Taylor

Sergeant, air gunner and wireless operator.

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 946939

Charles Richard Taylor was one of the two Wireless Operator/Air Gunners. We have been able to trace his family and are very grateful to them for their help.

The following is an extract from an email from Paul Taylor, Charles's nephew.

"Charles was born in Dawley in Shropshire on the 28th July 1917. His mother Annie Holmes Taylor was an infant school teacher and his father Charles Herbert Taylor was a skilled pattern maker in the Coalbrookdale Foundry which is now linked to the World Heritage Site at Ironbridge. His father later began a successful menswear shop and was a well known local councillor. Charles attended a local private primary school [there were a lot of local pay schools prior to the development of the state system] and later went to Wellington Grammar School in Wellington, Shropshire. I too went to this school and I recall that there was a plaque recording the war dead which included my Uncle Charles. After the Grammar School, I believe that [as my father did] Charles must have attended the Walker Technical College in Oakengates where he would have studied and developed an interest in radios and electronics. Charles and his younger twin brothers Allan [my father] and Gordon [born 25th December 1919] were very keen cyclists and I have a number of photos illustrating this interest, including the involvement of a wide circle of friends. They routinely cycled as far as Jersey Marine near Swansea to visit relatives. Prior to the outbreak of war [I would guess in 1938] Charles and Allan opened a radio and cycle shop in Dawley High Street [now part of Telford]. Both were interested in practical radio construction and Charles built a radio for his parents that remained in their house at Dawley Bank for many years. Charles was regarded as handsome, was popular with local girls and was a good dancer. He was a bright and capable person and undoubtedly had he survived the war, would have had every chance of carving out a successful career in business. I understand that my father was the first to volunteer on the outbreak of war, with Charles volunteering a little time after [probably once he had had the opportunity to close the shop at Dawley]. I am not sure where he undertook his basic training [probably Abbotsinch or Leuchars] and there seems to be little recall of his service record between 1939 and 42."

Charles (on the right) with his friend Stanley James Hoare.

According to Charles's service record he volunteered on the 16th January 1940 and, after various training courses, was, with John Campbell Atkinson and Orford Twelvetrees, posted to 86 squadron on the 16th February 1942. We can see from their service records that Charles would have met Orford quite early in their specialist training and must have been well acquainted before they met John at RAF Chivenor. Charles died four days short of his twenty-fifth birthday. Like John, his service record indicates Killed in Action.

Charles Taylor's service record

Charles's gravestone