Private, M2/202357 Army Service Corps.
Lived 2 Ivy Grove, Burnley Road, Rawtenstall.
Died of Enteric Fever, 24th January 1918, aged 24.
Buried Cape Town (Maitland Cemetery,) South Africa.
Bert Taylor and Thomas Harry Taylor were the two sons of John James Taylor and Alice Taylor, who all at one time lived at 2 Ivy Grove Burnley Road Rawtenstall, there were also four sisters May, Gertrude, Winnie and Leslie?, Thom Harry and his father both also lived for a time at Badger Cote Farm, which was situated along the main Burnley to Rawtenstall road approximately one mile from Providence Chapel towards Rawtenstall, and being on the left of the road. The boys Father John James, lived at Badger Cote Farm in 1891, and as the census shows, he is named as the adopted son of Mr Thomas Atkinson (Farmer) and his wife Sarah. Also at the Farm was a Domestic servant called Mary Burns. John James occupation is given as a joiner at a print works (either Loveclough or Sunnyside?). The Atkinson’s originated from Settle, Yorkshire, Mary from Liverpool, and John James from Crawshawbooth.
After Mr and Mrs Atkinson had passed away and John James had a family of his own, his son Thomas Harry Also continued at the Farm with the successive occupants Mr. and Mrs. Catlow, he stayed with them up to joining up but not before gaining a wife, her name being Mary Jane. Thom married Jane, on the 22nd of November 1916 at the Parish Church, Gannow Lane Burnley, the family address then became No28 Gannow Lane Burnley, in 1918 their son Harry was born, albeit after Thom Harrys death.
Enlisting at Burnley, Thom Harry joined B Company of the 3rd Battalion East Lancashire Reserve Regiment, giving his civil occupation as Chauffeur, and so was transferred to the Army Service Corps (motor transport) his number being M2/202357. He Embarked on the H.M.T Port Lincoln at Davenport on the 9th of October 1917 and disembarked at Dar am Salaam on the 19th of November 1917.
He served in South Africa, where unfortunately he contracted the disease Enteric Fever, which sadly proved fatal and he died on the 24th of January 1918 aged just 24 years. He is buried in Cape Town Maitland Cemetery, section 4, grave ref 97453 C. Both Taylor boys were to die from disease, Thom Harry just seven months after Bertie. Death given as Cholera, a board decided at City Hall Cape Town on the 16th of February 1918, that Thom had indeed died from his Military service and not previous employment or injury, no doubt enabling Jane to receive some form of pension.
Thom Harry was another of the Sunday School Scholars of Providence and a memorial service was held for him in the Chapel. The reverend William Carter, pastor, delivered the sermon from 1, Peter, iii..18… in which through the ages, and not least in these war times, Christ and his people suffered, the just for the unjust, the innocent with the guilty, yet on behalf of righteousness and the bringing of men to God and good. Hymns were sung, and Mr Willie Pollard the Goodshaw Band Master played Somewhere a voice is calling, and, the Last Post, with good effect.
