Backtracking: Allen Taylor

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Sepia Saturday: Allen and Laura Taylor

Laura and Allen Taylor

Allen Taylor was my great-uncle, my grandmother's brother. He died in 1972 when I was already an adult but I have only vague memories of meeting him and my aunt Laura once or twice and even then I can't recall the circumstances. I wonder now if he and his sister maintained contact that I'm unaware of, or if he was in touch with his other siblings.

So this is all that I know about him:

His father was a market gardener, skilled at growing vegetables, and his mother was a midwife
he was born at South Ecklin in 1902
when he was 12 years old his oldest brother, David, was killed in action in France
another brother served as a soldier in WW1 as well
he married Laura Hancock in 1926 and his son Roy was born the same year
in the 1930s he lived the western suburbs of Melbourne and worked as an assembler
his younger brother George, who also lived in the western suburbs, was killed accidentally in 1934
when he was 37 years old he enlisted in the army in WW2, serving as a sapper in the Middle East and Asia
his son, Roy, also enlisted, in 1945
after the war he lived at Red Cliffs near Mildura and worked as a foreman shed hand in some sort of fruit industry.

The photo of Allen and Laura in their garden is just about the only one I have of them and I quite like that it shows a playful side to his character. Laura has a fork in her hand and someone has tucked a dahlia under Allen's singlet. Allen looks very fit and strong. Who was the photographer I wonder?

This is the only other photo I have. It's Allen, in his army uniform, with his father Henry and his son Roy. Roy looks quite young so I think it must have been taken in about 1939.