As told by his son Mark Taylor :-

“The recruiting officer asked me how old I was? I said, 16 sir. He said, well come back when you are 18. So I walked around the quadrangle and came back to him. I am 18 now sir! Good he said.. sign here. Here is your shilling.”

He ended up running the dispensary at the base in Poona. He stayed on until 1921 and so came home a 23 year old.

Ronald emigrated to Australia in 1925 with his young family of 2 children. Eventually he divorced his wife towards the end of WW2. In 1949 he married my mother (another divorcee) and I came along in 1953, when he was 55.

He went on to become very successful in business here and died from smoking related lung cancer on the 7/3/1979.

He claims to have been with the crew who went to Mesopotamia .. and in 1973 he was in the UK and wrote to the MOD to get his service record to prove it. A letter came back (which I still have) saying that the majority of records were destroyed in the blitz. He was not mentioned on the deal roll for Mesopotamia.. and that saddened him a lot. I have no idea what he saw over there.. he contracted malaria and this dogged him the rest of his days. He didn’t talk too much about his service, but often said.. “War changes men!”