Son of William G. and Alma Taylor uit Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Husband of Ivy Irene Taylor from Stockingford, Nuneaton.

Research has shown that Sidney Taylor was in the front line of the invasion and liberation of Europe, a D-Day lander with the 76th Royal Artillery in the initial assault wave on the 6th June 1944 on ‘Sword’ beach. He was then in continuous action in many key European battles and advances before being killed outside of Overloon on the 15th October 1944.

It may seem strange but until recent research into the war archives his family had no real understanding of his war history and how he came to be killed in action in Overloon. The reason for the family’s lack of understanding can now probably be explained:
Sidney volunteered to serve, as he was in a reserved occupation (policeman in Coventry). We shall never know what his motivation was, but he was recently married (to Ivy in 1940) with a baby daughter (Kay) and as a policeman had witnessed, at first hand, the devastation and destruction of the German air raids on the nearby city of Coventry and his hometown of Nuneaton.

On volunteering, at the age of 26 in 1942, he was assigned to a number of units through his training, ending up in the 76th Royal Artillery (Highland) Regiment, which was a Scottish territorial regiment, and presumably was not with any friends from his hometown of Nuneaton. Once in the build-up to D-Day soldiers were not allowed to communicate what they were undertaking and so his wife, Ivy, would not have known where he was or what he was doing. There is a letter he wrote to Ivy saying he was “somewhere in France” on the 10th June 1944 but obviously, to avoid censorship, no further detail. In his subsequent letters home, there were also no specifics as to where he was and what action he was involved in. When he was killed in action the family were only informed of where. If, as is likely, he had not been serving with friends from his hometown it is entirely conceivable that none of his comrades who survived the war would have come into contact with his family after the war ended and so this courageous man’s story was left untold.

Sidney Alfred Taylor was temporary buried at the Peelkant (A. van Duren) in Overloon. In may 1947 he was reburied at Overloon War Cemetery.

Note: The inscription on Sidney’s war grave in Overloon incorrectly states he died aged 32. He was actually born in 1916 and so was 28 years old.