The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Overloon, popularly known as the English cemetery, contains 281 graves. Each with its own story. In this report series, the Overloon War Chronicles Foundation highlights such a special story every time. This time grave number 12, section IV, row E.

John Taylor (1915 – 1944)

The Battle of Caen and the deadly Loobeek
 
“We were going towards the elite German Panzer units. It was the hardest battle-you got bullets mortars bombs shells and everything falling down like rain and I do mean rain. There were blokes with heads blown off and burnt- there were rows and rows of them. There was a big château right at the bottom of Hill 112. We were deployed there with the 16 pounders. We dug in a slit trench. The château was being used as a field medical theatre, there was a large tent and outside the tent on each side were rows and rows of dead bodies covered in coats.”
(Source: James Hawkesworth/Jim Constable/bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories)

John Taylor is born on Sunday 12 December 1915 in Everton, a district in the city of Liverpool. He is the son of William Taylor (born December 1888) and Sarah Alice Taylor, maiden name Cowley (born 9 August 1890 in Liverpool).
William works for a long time as an oil mill labourer at the company J. Bibby Sons Limited Cattle Food Oil Refiners Soap in Liverpool where, among other things, seeds are processed into cattle feed via millstones.
William and Sarah get married on 3 August 1913 at St Mary’s in Kirkdale, a district in north Liverpool, they move to 104 Buckingham Street in Everton and start a family.    
In addition to William, Sarah and John, the family consists of four other sons: William (born July 1914), Edward Thomas (December 1918), George (October 1920), Joseph (1923) and Ernest (14 September 1926).
John is officially baptized on 2 January 1916 at Christ Church in Everton by W. Hill Melling.
 
By September 1939, William and Sarah are living on Woodfall Close street in Huyton, a village east of Liverpool. At that time, only Joseph and Ernest are still living with them, the other sons having left home.
 
John enlisted in the British army in 1933.
 
You can read how it continues in the full version of “Faces from the Past” below. 

See the full version.