LIEUTENANT LUKE THOMPSON TAYLOR
THE LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
3RD JUNE 1916 AGE 42
BURIED: AUBIGNY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE
Put "Luke Taylor" etcher into Google and then go to 'images' and the first few rows will all show Taylor's work. Some of it will be pencil studies of trees and landscapes for his own work and some will be etchings for the reproduction of the work of artists like Constable and Turner.
Born and brought up in York where his father was a cabinet maker, Taylor was living with his widowed mother at the time of the 1901 census. He described himself as an artist living on his own account. By 1911 he was living in London at 197 Bedford Hill, Balham. He still described himself as an artist and was emplying a married couple as cook and general servant. He also had eight boys living in the house aged between 14 and 18, some still at school and some apprenticed. He has bracketed them together and written, "This is a boys' home and these boys are under my care".
At this time Taylor was teaching etching at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. In later days Ernest Blaikley remembered him as "not only a good etcher but also a man of exceptionally high ideals. He had a burning desire to serve his fellow men and at the earliest moment he was in uniform and went out to the war in the spirit of a crusader, losing his life after an all too short period of service".
Taylor joined the Inns of Court OTC on the outbreak of war before taking a commission in the 8th Battalion the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. The battalion went to France in September 1915. Taylor lasted nine months. He was wounded during the fighting on 21 May when the Germans made a determined attack on Broadmarsh Crater. He died at No. 42 Casualty Clearing Station, Aubigny and was buried there the following day.
Both his parents being dead, his brother Arthur chose his inscription.