Five: Captain H. Taylor, Imperial Light Horse, wounded by shrapnel, 1 July 1942

1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Africa Service Medal, all officially named ‘26364 H. Taylor’, mounted as worn, generally very fine (5) £80-120

Harold Taylor was a native of Johannesburg and was born in September 1914. He was employed as a House Salesman and a Stock Clerk prior to his military service. Taylor enlisted in the Imperial Light Horse in July 1933. Having advanced to Sergeant, he was commissioned into the Imperial Light Horse on 1 January 1937.

Taylor was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1939, and advanced to Captain in June 1940. He served during the Second War with the Regiment in North Africa from 8 May 1941. Taylor was present with the Regiment during Operation Crusader, the capture of Bardia and the fighting at Gazala in June 1942, followed by the retreat into Egypt. He was hit in the leg by shrapnel, 1 July 1942, and was treated at the 5th S.A. General Hospital. The History of the 3rd S.A. Brigade records:

‘Capt. H. Taylor received a shell splinter in the leg, and Sgt. Phelan and L/Cpl. Trew were slightly wounded by shrapnel, when the truck in which they were travelling stuck in the sand and they were shelled.’

After convalescing Taylor rejoined his unit in August 1942. He received an accidental battlefield injury at El Alamein, 23 October 1942 - a gunshot wound to his left wrist from a Tommy gun. Taylor returned to South Africa with the I.L.H. in January 1943, but went back to Egypt with the 9th Battalion Reserve Brigade in October 1943. Captain Taylor was discharged in October 1945. A photograph of him appears in the "History of the Imperial Light Horse" with other officers of the regiment early in the war.

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