John Taylor

John Taylor earned the Victoria Cross in the deadly aftermath of the failed British assault on the Redan at Sebastopol. On 18 June 1855, after British infantry had been driven back from the Russian defences, a soldier of the 57th Regiment of Foot who had been shot through both legs was seen sitting upright in the exposed ground ahead of the British advanced sap, calling for assistance. Commander Henry James Raby, Boatswain's Mate Henry Curtis, and Taylor, then serving as Captain of the Forecastle with the Royal Naval Brigade, climbed over the breastwork and went to his aid.

The three men crossed more than seventy yards of open ground while Russian fire continued from the Redan. Reaching the wounded soldier, they lifted him and carried him back to the protection of the British positions. Their rescue was subsequently included among the acts of gallantry recognized when the first awards of the Victoria Cross were announced in 1857. Taylor's award appeared in the London Gazette on 24 February 1857.

"On the 18th June, 1855, immediately after the assault on Sebastopol, a soldier of the 57th Regiment, who had been shot through both legs, was observed sitting up, and calling for assistance. Climbing over the breastwork of the advanced sap, Commander Raby and the two seamen proceeded upwards of seventy yards across the open space towards the salient angle of the Redan, and in spite of the heavy fire which was still continuing, succeeded in carrying the wounded soldier to a place of safety, at the imminent risk of their own lives."

Despatch from Admiral Lord Lyons, published in the London Gazette, 24 February 1857.

Taylor was born in Bristol in about 1822, with contemporary biographical research placing his birth in the parish of St Philip and St Jacob. He entered the Royal Navy as a young seaman and served aboard HMS Cornwallis during the First Anglo-Chinese War. His later campaign entitlement confirms service aboard HMS Hastings during the Second Anglo-Burmese War, for which he received the India General Service Medal with the clasp Pegu. A surviving 1925 auction catalogue specifically records his China Medal as being for HMS Cornwallis and his Pegu medal for HMS Hastings.

By the Crimean War Taylor had become Captain of the Forecastle, a shipboard seaman's rating or appointment among the petty officers, not the commissioned Royal Navy rank of Captain. He served aboard HMS London and went ashore with the Naval Brigade during the siege of Sebastopol. The distinction is important: Taylor was an experienced naval rating entrusted with responsibility over men in his part of the ship, rather than a commissioned naval officer. Historical descriptions of Royal Navy organization identify captains of the forecastle among the petty officers.

Taylor's courage on 18 June 1855 brought more than one distinction. Contemporary reporting records that the Admiralty granted him the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, together with a £15 gratuity, for his gallantry in the trenches before Sebastopol that day. He was later awarded the Victoria Cross for the rescue of the wounded 57th Regiment soldier.

France also honoured Taylor for his Crimean service. The London Gazette of 4 August 1856 lists John Taylor, Captain of Forecastle, HMS London among the recipients appointed Knights, 5th Class, of the Légion d'honneur, the grade corresponding to Chevalier. This establishes the precise class of his French decoration and confirms that his Légion d'honneur should be described as Chevalier, or Knight 5th Class, rather than simply as an unspecified Légion d'honneur.

After returning to Britain, Taylor married Elizabeth Joy at Cheriton, Kent, in February 1856. He did not live to receive his Victoria Cross personally. His name appeared in the London Gazette on 24 February 1857, and he died the following day, 25 February, at the Royal Marine Infirmary at Woolwich, aged about thirty-five. He was buried in Woolwich Old Cemetery. His Victoria Cross was subsequently sent by registered post to his widow, Elizabeth Taylor, on 8 July 1857.

The history of Taylor's decorations can now be documented more securely than the earlier biography suggested. In June 1925, the Glendining & Co. auction catalogue for the W. Phillips Collection offered what it described as a valuable group of naval decorations awarded to John Taylor, R.N., HMS London. The catalogue enumerated the China War Medal 1842, India General Service Medal with Pegu clasp, Victoria Cross, first-type Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, Crimea Medal with Inkermann and Sebastopol clasps, enamelled badge of the Légion d'honneur, and Turkish Crimea Medal.

A later specialist survey of the Sheesh Mahal Medal Collection at Patiala identifies Taylor's group there with the same seven honours and the same campaign clasps. The available evidence therefore supports describing the complete known Taylor group as comprising the Victoria Cross, Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, China War Medal 1842, India General Service Medal with Pegu, Crimea Medal with Inkermann and Sebastopol, Légion d'honneur as Chevalier, and Turkish Crimea Medal.

Taylor died only one day after his Victoria Cross was gazetted. He therefore never had the opportunity to receive or wear the decoration himself, but his rescue under fire at the Redan secured his place among the earliest recipients of the Victoria Cross and among the Royal Navy ratings whose gallantry ashore during the Crimean War received both British and foreign recognition.