Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Private Joseph Taylor
Date Information
01/05/2020 02296
16/08/2018 A letter has been received from the sergeant major of C Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, stating that on 5th May, Private Joseph Taylor, No 2445, was instantaneously killed, and that his body had been interred in the little cemetery behind the trenches the same afternoon. Private Taylor was about 48 years of age, and leaves a widow and one child, about two years of age. He was an old militia man, and had seen service in the South African war, for which he received two medals, and was well known in the district, being engaged in the dealing business all over the country. He was called up when the war broke out and went to the front about 1st November last. He resideas at Coolreaghs, Cookstown, and was a brother of Sergeant William Taylor, who had been recruiting officer for some time, and who died in January last.
16/08/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 15th May 1915: Private Joseph Taylor
16/08/2018
16/08/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 15th May 1915:
16/08/2018
16/08/2018 The following is a copy of the letter received:-
16/08/2018 ‘France, 6th May 1915. To Mr Hugh Taylor. Dear sir, I received a letter yesterday addressed to No 2445, Private J Taylor and I am very sorry to have to inform you that he was killed about 6am yesterday morning. It will I hope be some consolation to you to know that he suffered no pain as his death was instantaneous. He was buried yesterday afternoon, about 4pm, the burial service being conducted by the chaplain in a little cemetery behind the trenches. A wooden cross bearing his rank, name, regiment and the date, has been placed at the head of the grave. You will probably receive an official communication from the War Office. Should you require any further particulars which I can furnish, I shall only be too pleased to help. Would you kindly let any other of his relatives who are alive know the facts, and, as I understand he was married, would you kindly let her know as I have not got her address, and you may be able to break the news more gently to her than I could in a letter. Someone sends him out a small packet of tobacco every week, and if you know who the sender is, you can tell them he received a packet on the afternoon before his death. With deepest sympathy I remain, yours sincerely, M Mahaffy, Quarter Major Sergeant, C Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.’
16/08/2018 Joseph Taylor was born in Dungannon about 1867.
16/08/2018 Known family: parents unknown, Joseph Taylor, William Taylor
16/08/2018 Joseph and William Taylor both served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the Boer War in South Africa.
16/08/2018 Both men retired from the army to work in Cookstown.
16/08/2018 Joseph Taylor and Mary Hayes were married on 2nd September 1911 in the district of Cookstown.
16/08/2018 Family: Joseph Taylor, Mary Taylor, Jane Taylor (born 8th September 1914).
16/08/2018 Joseph was called back to his old regiment at the outbreak of the First World War.
16/08/2018 Joseph’s brother, Sergeant William Taylor, was recruiting with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he contracted pneumonia in Cookstown and died on 20th January 1915.
16/08/2018 On 25th January 1915 the 2nd Inniskillings were posted to 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division, but came into no serious action for some time.
16/08/2018 At the opening of the Battle of Festubert the battalion was called upon to show their mettle in attack. Up until 15th May 1915 they had encountered little resistance. It was reported that there had been 6 men killed and 40 wounded.
16/08/2018 Private Joseph Taylor was as killed in action at around 6 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday 5th May 1915. Private Taylor was buried at 4pm that day.
16/08/2018 Hugh Taylor received a letter of condolence from Quarter-Master Sergeant M Mahaffy.
16/08/2018 Private Joseph Taylor is buried in Cuinchy Communal Cemetery in France.
16/08/2018 Private Joseph Taylor is commemorated on Cookstown Cenotaph and St. Luran’s Church of Ireland Roll of Honour, Derryloran, Cookstown.
16/08/2018
16/08/2018 The 1911 census lists Mary Hayes as age 20, a charwoman living with the Whann family in Coolreaghs. William Whann, one of the family, aged 19, also died in the war.
16/08/2018 They lived at Coolreaghs, near Cookstown. They had one child. Jane Taylor was born on 8th September 1914 in Cookstown.
15/08/2018
15/08/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 15th May 1915:
15/08/2018 Inserted by his sorrowing wife (Mary Taylor, Coolreaghs) and little daughter Jane.
15/08/2018 TAYLOR – 5th May, killed in action in France, Joseph Taylor, 2445, Private, C Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, late of Coolreaghs, Cookstown, aged 48 years.
30/12/2015 TAYLOR – In ever affectionate remembrance of my dear departed husband Joseph, who departed this life on May 5th, 1915, in France, killed in action.
30/12/2015 There will be a glorious dawn,
30/12/2015 Where we meet to part, no, never,
30/12/2015 On the resurrection morn.
30/12/2015 It’s hard to part with one so dear,
30/12/2015 And say, ‘Thy will be done’.
30/12/2015 But He who chose him for His own,
30/12/2015 Will keep him till we come.’.
30/12/2015 Inserted by his sorrowing wife and little daughter, M and J Taylor, Killybaskey, Cookstown.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 'No more we will clasp thy vanished hand,
30/12/2015 Nor hear the voice now stilled,
30/12/2015 Till we reach the land where you’ll proudly stand,
30/12/2015 Mid earth’s heroes in action killed.'
30/12/2015 'My darling sleeps, but not forever,
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 6th May 1916:
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