Major David Taylor - Telegraph David Charlton Taylor was born at Loose, near Maidstone, Kent, on November 13 1920 and educated at Epsom College. After three months with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and a spell at Octu, in April 1941 he was commissioned and posted to the 1st Ox & Bucks. He accompanied his battalion to Normandy in June 1944, landing a few weeks after D-Day. Shortly after the action at Cahier he assumed command of B Company, which had lost all its officers - either killed or wounded. In August the battalion took part in an attack on an enemy held crossroads east of Thury-Harcourt. Taylor was wounded and evacuated to England. In November he rejoined the battalion in Holland as second-in-command of D Company in time to take part in the move to the Ardennes to counter the German breakthrough. The overcast weather grounded the Allied air forces. Densely planted pine forests were shrouded in mist, the slopes of hillsides icy and many of the roads barricaded with fallen trees or mined, the mines forming telltale hummocks in the snow. Attempts to clear them usually attracted a barrage of mortar or artillery shells. In their first attack, into a wood, the company commander was killed and Taylor was wounded again. A few weeks later, however, he was able to rejoin the battalion as company commander. In the battle of the Reichswald, Taylor was wounded for a third time. He was evacuated to the British general hospital at Louvain where he remained until shortly after V-E day. He rejoined his battalion in Hamburg, this time as "A Company" commander. After being demobilised in 1946, he qualified as a solicitor. Seven years later he decided on a change of career and moved into personnel management in industry. Following his retirement, he served as a member of an industrial tribunal. Settled at Barnes in south-west London, he was an active supporter of his parish church, a local children's charity and the Conservative Party. Almost every year from 1946 to 2001 he attended the Old Comrades reunion at Oxford. He said that the great joy of his regimental service was the number of lifelong friends he made; his great sorrow, the number of friends and comrades killed in action. David Taylor married, in 1977, Ruth Nuttall. There were no children. Major David Taylor, born November 13 1920, died April 13 2013