Harold Burfield Taylor aggregated collection of diaries, 7 January 1916-7 June 1918

fonds

7 January 1916-7 June 1918

971470

0.05 metres of textual material (2 volumes in folders) - manuscript

Harold Burfield Taylor, a Department of Public Health analyst of Longueville, Sydney, New South Wales, enlisted with the A.I.F. at the age of 25, Sept. 1915 and embarked on board HMAT A14 Euripides, 2 Nov. 1915. He served with the 19th Battalion in Egypt, Jan. 1916 and France and Belgium, Mar. 1916- June 1918 and was promoted to Lieutenant, June 1916 and to Captain in February 1917. He won the Military Cross for bravery at Lagincourt in April 1917 and won a Bar to his Military Cross in October 1917 for capturing Daisy Wood, east of Ypres, Belgium. He returned to Australia on the Orsova, Jan. 1919.
In 1939 he returned to a military career, was placed in charge of the 5th Brigade and then given the command of the 22nd Brigade, 8th Division. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942 Taylor was imprisoned in Changi and then transferred to Formosa (Taiwan) and later Manchuria. After the war, he was appointed government analyst in 1946, retiring in 1954.

The 19th Battalion was raised at Liverpool in New South Wales in March 1915 as part of the 5th Brigade. After Gallipoli and further training in Egypt, the Battalion went to France where it took part in its first major offensive around Pozières in July and August 1916. In October the battalion attacked near Flers in conditions described by C.E.W. Bean as the worst ever encountered by the AIF. In 1917, the 19th was one of four battalions to defeat a German force, almost five times as strong, at Lagincourt. The Battalion took part in a further three major battles in 1917, at Bullecourt in France, and Menin Road and Poelcappelle in Belgium. In 1918, it participated in Amiens on 8 August, the attack on Mont St Quentin on 31 August, and it's last battle - the forcing of the Beaurevoir Line around Montbrehain on 3 October.

References:
Library Correspondence File
Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (accessed March 9, 2012)
Australian War Memorial. http://awm.gov.au (accessed March 9, 2012)

COLLECTION 01
Harold Burfield Taylor war diary, 7 January 1916-19 May 1917
Purchased from Aalders Auctions, Sydney, 27 June 2011, Lot 127

COLLECTION 02
Harold Burfield Taylor war diary, 20 May 1917-7 June 1918
Purchased from Aalders Auctions, Sydney, 4 January 2012, Lot 128

State Library of New South Wales collection of World War I diaries