Private George Taylor

Private George Taylor, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France on 15th September 1916, aged 34 during the Battle of the Somme. He was the son of Margaret and the late William Tayloe of Rock, Alnwick and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France. He fell in the heavy fighting in and around the German positions in ” Sunken Road ” which cost the Battalion 3 Officers and 144 Other Ranks killed and missing and 7 Officers and 219 Other Ranks wounded. The photographs show troops on the Somme. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ( Division as a Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action during the Battle of St. Julien only days after landing on the Continent.