Every once in a while, I go back to old cases where I’ve hit a brick wall and try a different tack. Perhaps some new records have been released? Perhaps I just have a fresh perspective and can see things differently? I never know what I might find.
This latest revist is that of Lt. R.W. Taylor, the physician who wrote prescriptions for both Rudolf Hess and Josef Jakobs when they passed through the gates of the Tower of London.
My earlier blog looked at the prescriptions themselves and while I had found a Lt. R.W. Taylor M.B. (Medicinae Baccalaureus) who had received an Emergency Commission on 21 October 1940… that was about it.
I had found a Ronald Wentworth Taylor who went on to become an obstetrician in the 1950s and 1960s, but I wasn’t confident that this was the same as our Lt. R.W. Taylor. Here are the results of my latest excavations.
Not Ronald Wentworth Taylor
Well, we can at least lay this possibility to rest. Ronald Wentworth Taylor was born 28 October 1932 in Liverpool and it is therefore impossible that he would have received a commission in His Majesty’s Forces in 1940 at the age of eight. Ronald did go on to become an obstetrician, gynecologist and educator. He was a Fellow with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a member of the Royal Society Medicine.
According to the 1959 Medical Register – Ronald was residing at 25 Connolly Avenue, Bootle, 20, Lancashire that year. He had been admitted to the Medical Register on 10 July 1958 after earning an M.B. and Ch.B. in 1958 at the University of Liverpool.
I think we can safely say that Lt. R.W. Taylor at the Tower of London in 1941 was NOT Ronald Wentworth Taylor.
Army Lists and Gazettes
I went back to the Army List entry and decided to see if I could find the Gazette notice in which R.W. Taylor had received his commission. I looked at the 1945 Army List, hoping it might show further promotions which would also help me track him down.
From this, we can see that Taylor received his commission on 21 October 1940 and was promoted to War Substantive Captain on 21 October 1941. With that date, I went hunting in the London Gazette and found this entry from 6 January 1941.
Richard William Taylor M.B. received an emergency commission as a lieutenant and… we have his army number as well – 152974, although it isn’t all that much help. I was unable to find a Gazette notice for his W.S. Captain’s promotion, nor any other Gazette notice. He seems to have kept a low profile.
I then searched the 1939 National Register, in the hopes that I might find him. Alas… several different search parameters (Richard Taylor, R.W. Taylor, Richard William Taylor, Richard W. Taylor) did not yield anyone whose occupation was a physician. Mind you, I limited the age search to someone born within 10 years of 1910, figuring that Taylor would have been 20-40 years old in 1940. That was a mistake.
UK Medical Registers
I discovered the above 1959 Medical Register on Ancestry while searching for Ronald Wentworth Taylor. I hadn’t encountered it in my search for Richard William… but it has proven a treasure-trove of information. In 1959, the only two R.W. Taylors were… Ronald Wentworth Taylor and a Richard William Taylor.
In 1959, Richard William Taylor was a resident of Knighton Villa, Kenilworth Road, Kenilworth, Cape, South Africa. He had been admitted to the Medical Register in England on 7 February 1923. And then we get into alphabet soup:
- M.R.C.S. Eng., 1923 – Membership of The Royal College of Surgeons
- L.R.C.P. Lond. 1923 – Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians
- M.B., B.S. 1937, U. Lond. – Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery
Given that Richard William had been awarded two diplomas in 1923, he might have been born before 1900.
I also found him in the 1939 UK Medical Register, this time living at 49 Green Hill, Hampstead, London, N.W.3. He was also the only R.W. Taylor listed for that year of the Medical Register
And in 1943, he was living at 44 Castelnau, Barnes, London, S.W. 13 with no other R.W. Taylor’s listed in the Medical Register. Could this be the Lt. R.W. Taylor from the Tower of London? It seems possible.
Diving into the Genealogy Records
I had another go at the 1939 National Register, particularly with the 1939 UK Medical Register listing him as living in Hampstead… and using a birth date of 1895 +/- 5 years. While a search of London yielded nothing… a search of Surrey yielded this.
44 Castelnau, Barnes, CMDB
26/1 – Taylor, Richard W. – Male – born 14 Nov 1895 – Married – Medical Practitioner
26/4 – Archer, Edgar J.H. – Male – born 25 Nov 1877 (87 pencilled in) – Married – Butler (late Hotel Manager)
26/5 Archer, Annette – Female – born 30 Oct 1875 – Married – Housekeeper
This would seem to be our gentleman of the Medical Register. There are obviously two individuals missing from the household – 26/2 and 26/3, possibly a wife and child. I had a look at the end of this particular registration book, where strays usually congregate but found no other entries for 44 Castelnau, although there are a fair few that are still officially closed. Still, this has at least given us Richard William’s birth date – 14 November 1895.
While I generally delve into Ancestry, this week I have a free trial of Find My Past and tracked down a 1948 Passenger Manifest on which we find Dr. R.W. Taylor, his wife and their two daughters formerly residing at 44 Castelnau, Barnes. The family was planning to make South Africa their permanent residence. Alas, initials are all we have to go on for these four:
Dr. R.W. Taylor – 52 years old
Mrs. Taylor – 50 years old
Miss M.R.F. Taylor – 17 years old
Miss E. Taylor – 8 years old
With a bit of judicious searching, I managed to track down the 1938 Electoral Register for 49 Green Hill, Camden (Hampstead was included in Camden) and found Richard Taylor and, presumably, his wife Elizabeth. Searching for her via the 1939 National Register with CMDB as the enumeration district has not yielded any results. So, she is likely buried under one of the “officially closed” records, for whatever reason.
The last thing I found was an Army Discharge index entry for R.W. Taylor (born 14 November 1895) and with an Army number of 152974 but there are no details as to when this discharge took place.
And that’s, unfortunately, as far as I have been able to take it. Without full names, it becomes really tricky to pin anybody down with certainty. And there are a heck of a lot of Richard William Taylors born within a two year spread of 1895!
Skating on Thin Ice
And yet… there is some more info… but this is where we go out on genealogical thin ice… None of the following is certain but… it is possible.
I found a Richard W. Taylor who married an Elizabeth Foley in 1929 in Marleybone, London. Given that Richard had studied medicine in London in 1923 and 1937… it seems reasonable to consider London the most likely location for his marriage. It also jives with the birth of their first child around 1931 (based on the 1948 passenger list).
While M.R.F. Taylor (their first child) is a bit of a stretch… I did find a Mary R.F. Taylor born in 1930 in Leicestershire with Foley as the mother’s surname. A bit more digging and this likely turns into one Mary Rose Foley Taylor who, in 1958, travelled from South Africa to England as a commercial artist.
Mary Rose apparently married a John Steede at some point, divorced him and then, in 1971, married Michael V. Salmon. Mary Rose Foley Salmon passed away in 2016 in Birmingham.
Again, this is all on rather thin ice and it remains to be seen if it is accurate. I did find an Ancestry tree for Mary Rose but the tree had no further information for Richard Taylor and Elizabeth Foley other than their names.
Recent News
Just recently, I came across The Medical Directory (1940) on Ancestry which lists our friend, Richard William Taylor of 44 Castelnau, Barnes. The information for his entry rehashes what we already know, but does give a bit more of his medical resume.
- M.B., B.S. London – 1937
- MRCS England, LRCP London – 1923
- St. Bartholomew Hospital (likely)
- Certifying Mental Authority Board of Control – 1938
- Member BMA (British Medical Association?)
- late Medical Officer Syston Smallpox Hospital (Syston is just NE of Leicester)
- Clinical Assistant (Dermatology) Nottingham General Hospital
- Clinical Assistant Royal Chest Hospital, London
- Author – “Treatment of lupus vulgaris by Lundie’s tuberculin”, St. Bart. Hosp. Journal, 1926
- Author – Treatment of migraine”, Ibid, 1931
- Author – “Two Cases of cow pox”, British Medical Journal, 1932
Conclusion
I have gone deep down the Lt R.W. Taylor rabbit hole and none of the above proves that our Richard William Taylor was the Lt. R.W. Taylor at the Tower of London. For all we know, Lt. R.W. Taylor could have been a medical student or intern or goodness knows what else. Although… the Army List (Lt. R.W. Taylor M.B.) would tend to lean me in the direction of accepting the above conclusions. Assuming of course that the Army List entry is indeed the same person as the Tower of London physician.
Perhaps some distant (or not so distant) relation will find this blog post and reach out, either to confirm or deny this information.
As an aside… Knighton Villa, Kenilworth Road in Capetown is STILL a medical practice to this day… although I rather doubt that they would have a list of physicians dating back to the 1950s! But… you never know…
I could, of course, always apply for Richard’s army personnel records with his birth date and army number (£30) or, perhaps the archives of the Royal Army Medical Corps might have something…. Something to consider for another day.
Sources
Ancestry – genealogical records
Find My Past – genealogical records
British Army List
London Gazette