大象传媒

When war came, Enos, the elder surviving son of Aaron and Emily Taylor, was working at Friden brickworks in a reserved occupation which exempted him from military call-up. Regardless, he volunteered for the Navy and was killed in action at Ostend at the age of 22 on 1st November 1944. Several days later, his mother, alone at home at Mawstone Lane, opened a telegram expecting news of his imminent arrival on leave. It said:

DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU YOUR SON ENOS TAYLOR TELEGRAPHIST HAS BEEN REPORTED KILLED ON WAR SERVICE. LETTER FOLLOWING.

The letter, when it came, said: 鈥淚 was one of your son鈥檚 officers and have known your son for quite a long time. In all frankness, I must say he was one of my best, most reliable and cheerful ratings on board. In many awkward and tight corners in which we have been previously, Enos always radiated a smile and a cheerful disposition to those men working around him. His death was one of the worst shocks to my men on board, who knew him so well as 鈥楲ofty鈥欌��. It was only through his precise and detailed diary of the D-day landing that his family learned of the perils he had endured through the shock and shell of five sea-borne invasions (see page 8). He wrote of the slaughter off the beaches of Normandy 鈥� the floating corpses and the mayhem 鈥� yet outwardly he remained the same cheerful comrade. The capture of Ostend was vital to the Allied supply lines and, as the letter said: 鈥淥ur job at Watcheron was a most hazardous one鈥� the action will go down in the annals of history鈥� definitely has hastened the end of this dreadful war.鈥� Sadly, Enos did not live to see it. He was killed instantly by shellfire and is buried in the military cemetery in Ostend.

This story was donated by Andrew McCloy and Norman Wilson and was submitted to the site by Alison Tebbutt, Derby CSV Action Desk. The author has given his permission and fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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