Sam Taylor was born at 16 Coquet Street, Hebburn, Durham on 26 October 1893. His birth was registered in the surname of his unmarried mother, Elizabeth Kidger, and his father's name was not recorded. Elizabeth was a 17 year old domestic servant from Middlesbrough. Almost two years later, she married James Sanderson Taylor on 5 August 1895 at the Congregational Chapel, Victoria Street, Blackpool and from then on Sam took his stepfather's surname of Taylor.
Yet Taylor was his not stepfather's birth name either. James had been born on 22 January 1871 in Jarrow, Durham and his birth was registered under the name of James Sanderson Sanderson. His father, James Sanderson a plumber and brazier, had died before he was born. Young James took the surname of his stepfather after his mother, Jane Elizabeth Nicholson, married Daniel Taylor in South Shields on 3 January 1875.
Elizabeth and James came to live in Thornton where their first child, Jane Elizabeth, known as Jenny, was born on 4 November 1895. Shortly after, they returned to the North East where daughter Mary Isabella was born in 1897, followed by son Daniel two years later. However, before the 1901 Census was taken, the Taylor family had returned to Thorton to live at 3 Ormerod Street. James was employed as a boiler fireman. Three more sons were born in quick succession: James Sanderson (1901), Robert Sanderson (1902) and William Henry (1904) but James died in infancy and Robert died at the age on one. By January 1906 the Taylors had moved to Pleasant Grove, closer to Church Road where the older children attended the Thornton Council School.
Before the next census on 2 April 1911, three more daughters had been born: Edith (1906), Nellie (1908) and Alice. Elizabeth and James, together with their eight surviving children, were recorded at Rosebud Cottages, near the Gardeners Arms on Fleetwood Road. James still worked as a boiler fireman at the chemical works. Jenny, aged 15, was a domestic servant. Sam, aged 17, was a grocer's errand boy, but he had become a labourer by the time he joined the King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment on 31 September 1914 at Lancaster.
Sam's war service record has survived in part. We know that he remained on the Home Front until 16 July 1915 when he we was sent to France. An extract from a letter that he wrote home on 10 March 1916 was published by the Fleetwood Chronicle. In it Sam acknowledged the receipt off cigarettes whilst in the trenches. He wrote, "I was very thankful for them as a few cigarettes are as good as a meal while on duty. I am quite well at present, and as happy as a lark while I am doing my duty in the trenches. To make things better, I am along with some more Thornton boys."
A qualified machine gunner, Sam was promoted in the field to Lance Corporal on 8 August 1916 and further promoted to Sergeant on 27 July 1917. Sadly, Sam was reported as missing in action on 9 April 1918. His body was never found and by October was assumed to have died on that date. He was aged 24 and engaged to be married to Miss Susannah Boyt of Ashton-under-Lyne.
Sergeant Samuel Taylor, 13053, 1st/4th Battalion, King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment is remembered on Panel 19 and 20, Loos Memorial, Loos-en-Gohelle, Pas de Calais, France and on a tablet at his old school.
Sam's sister Jenny married Henry Rawcliffe, another soldier commemorated in Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial. The Taylors and Rawcliffes lived next door to each other at 7 and 8 Pleasant Grove.
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