Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Lieutenant W. E. Taylor, Army Service Corps, killed when the S.S. Cameronian was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean, 2 June 1917

1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); Memorial Plaque (William Edward Taylor) extremely fine (4) £280-320

William Edward Taylor was born in Bishops Stortford on 17 January 1879. Served in the Cambridge University Mounted Infantry 1900-02. Living at Wharfe House, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, he attested for the West Kent Yeomanry on 8 September 1914. Appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the A.S.C. in April 1915. Served in Salonika from 17 May 1915. Promoted to Lieutenant in the A.S.C in April 1917.

Lieutenant Taylor was on board the S.S. Cameronian which was carrying a large number of mules and a few soldiers to look after them, from Salonika to Alexandria, when in the early morning of 2 June 1917 she was torpedoed by a submarine. Unfortunately a number of men were asleep in hammocks on the lower deck. The explosion flooded that deck and all the men were drowned; and the ship sank within five minutes. Those lost included the ship’s captain, one other officer and nine men of the crew; together with two army officers (including Taylor) and 30 other ranks. His name is commemorated on the Chatby Memorial, Egypt.

With copied service papers, m.i.c. and other research.