Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1888 (Captn. W. W. Taylor 45th. Bl. Infy.) extremely fine £300-£400

William Willoughby Taylor ‘was born on 25 October 1857, the son of the Reverend Henry Willoughby Taylor, R.N., sometime Chaplain of H.M.S. Hogue, and entered H.M.’s service in August 1876 as a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines (Light Infantry). After more than three years’ service in that Corps, he became a candidate for admission into the Indian Army, and having been sent out, he was, on 23 June 1880, appointed a Wing Officer in the 38th Native Infantry, on probation for the Bengal Staff Corps, into which he was subsequently admitted. Having joined that regiment at Meerut, he officiated as Quartermaster for some time in the spring of the succeeding year, and in the winter of 1881-82 he proceeded with the corps to Peshawar. In July 1882 he was appointed a Wing Officer in the 45th Native Infantry (Rattray’s Sikhs), and joined that corps at Jhelum, whence in the spring of 1884 he moved with it to Quetta. In the autumn of the same year he served with the corps in the Zhob Valley Expedition, on the conclusion of which he accompanied it to Agra, arriving there on 17 December. In February 1885 he was appointed Quartermaster of the regiment, and towards the end of the same year he was appointed to officiate as Adjutant. In the spring of 1886 he accompanied the corps to Rawalpindi, and there in May 1886 he was confirmed in the post of Adjutant; he, however, held this appointment for only a few months, having been obliged to vacate it in the succeeding January, on attaining the rank of Captain. From June to September 1887 he officiated as a Wing Commander.

In April 1888 he was appointed (as a temporary arrangement) a Wing Commander in the 20th Bengal Infantry, at the same station, but having, in the following August, been appointed Wing Commander in his own Regiment, he reverted then to the 45th, with which, in October and November of the same year, he served throughout the Hazara Campaign, including the operations on the Black Mountain. On the termination of the operations he returned with the regiment to Rawalpindi, and there in December 1888 he was appointed a Wing Commander in the corps. At the end of September 1889 he went home on leave, and was absent from India until October 1890; he then rejoined the 45th at Rawalpindi, whence, in January 1891, he accompanied the corps to Jhansi. In February 1891 he was appointed Second-in-Command, and he continued in that position until the 24 May following, when he was appointed a Wing Commander in the 14th Bengal Infantry (Ferozepore Sikhs), reverting at the same time to Wing Officer in his own regiment.

He joined the 14th at Peshawar, and from November 1891 to May 1892 he officiated as Second-in-Command of that corps. In June 1892 he was again appointed a Wing Commander in his own regiment, but he continued attached to the 14th at Peshawar until March 1893, when he reverted to the 45th as a Wing Commander, and on rejoining the corps at Jhansi he was immediately appointed to officiate as Second-in-Command. In the following December he proceeded on leave, and going home at the end of February 1894 he was absent from India for a year. On returning in February 1895 he rejoined his regiment at Jhansi, and was again appointed Second-in-Command, a post which he continued to hold until the following December, at which time he accompanied the regiment to Mian Mir. In April 1896 he moved up to the Malakand with the Regiment, and at that place from June to September 1896, and again for a short time in the summer of the following year, he officiated as Second-in-Command of the corps. He was still there with the regiment in 1897 when the great frontier outbreak of that year occurred, and when, on the night of the 26 July, the Malakand position was assailed by a horde of desperate fanatics, he greatly distinguished himself in the defence of the gorge at the summit of the old Buddhist road, rendering the most valuable assistance to the officer commanding on the spot, until at last he fell mortally wounded with a rifle shot through his right side. He was removed to camp, and there he died of his wounds two days later on 28 July 1897.’