Photo: Derek Haynes

Photo: Derek Haynes

24121465 Corporal
T.P. Taylor
The Light Infantry
13th May 1973 26 years

Dearly loved husband of
Beryl
And dear dad of
Paul and Michelle

There is also a plaque which reads:-

In loving memory of
My
Devoted son
Corporal Thomas Paul Taylor
Died 13 May 1973 aged 26 years
R.I.P.

Derek Haynes has provided the following:-

Thomas was born in the June Q 1947 in Sunderland to John and Nora C. Taylor (nee Lewis); his parents were married in the September Q 1944 also in Sunderland.

Thomas had one elder brother John Brian Taylor whose birth was registered in the June Q 1945 in Sunderland.

In the December Q 1969 in Sunderland Thomas married Beryl Stephenson; they had two children Thomas Paul and Michelle.

If newspaper reports are correct Thomas had been in the Army for nearly six years when he was killed, serving with the 2nd Battalion Light Infantry (Regt. no. 24121465).

On the 13th May 1973 a patrol which included Thomas was investigating an anonymous phone call that a gunman was on the premises of a disused building the Maguire and Patterson match factory in the Donegal Road, Belfast. Just as they entered the building there was an explosion, a mine placed inside the building had been detonated by a terrorist hiding some distance away behind a wall. Thomas and his colleague Pte. John Gaskell (21) of Thornley, Co. Durham were killed, two others were injured. They were Pte. Leonard Henry (23) of London and 19-year-old Pte. Martin Barwell of Yorkshire.

The body of Thomas was returned home and at noon on the 18th May hundreds of mourners were gathered outside Holy Trinity Church, Southwick where the service was to take place. After the service the cortege made the short journey to Southwick Cemetery, there pall bearers from the Durham, Houghton and Spennymoor Companies of the 5th Light Infantry (Volunteers) carried Thomas to his final resting place where he was laid to rest in Section 5 Grave no. 1674.

The Last Post was sounded by Bugler John Pearson of Hartlepool.

A CWGC headstone marks his final resting place.

Thomas had only been back on duty for five days, he had returned to Belfast on the 8th May after being home on leave to see his team Sunderland in the FA Cup Final, a game in which they won.

A report in the Sunderland Echo states the reason the 5th Light Infantry (Volunteers) were pall bearers was that the Riflemen and coffin bearers from the Battalion did not arrive in Sunderland on time. There were representatives from the Battalion including the Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel Robert Macgregor–Oakford.

Thomas was the second Sunderland soldier to be killed in Northern Ireland, the other being Gunner Brian Robertson a year earlier. Both soldiers were from the Red House Estate area of Sunderland.

Thomas Paul Taylor is remembered in Sunderland on S140.143