Person:Vivian Taylor (1)

Often known as Bill.

From CWGC: Name: TAYLOR, VIVIAN GEORGE; Initials: V G; Nationality: Australian; Rank: Lance Corporal; Regiment: Australian Infantry, A.I.F; Unit Text: 23rd Bn.; Age: 27; Date of Death: 05/07/1918; Service No: 2811; Additional information: Son of George Charles and Louisa Arpin Taylor, of Don Rd., Healesville, Victoria, Australia; Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead; Cemetery: VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL.

Service Record: Name: Vivian George TAYLOR; Regimental number: 2811; Religion: Church of England; Occupation: Labourer; Address: Don Road, Healesville, Victoria; Marital status: Single; Age at embarkation: 34; Next of kin: Father, G C Taylor, Don Road, Healesville, Victoria; Enlistment date: 21 July 1915; Date of Enlistment from Nominal Roll: 7 July 1915; Rank on enlistment: Private; Unit name: 23rd Battalion, 6th Reinforcement; AWM Embarkation Roll number: 23/40/2; Embarkation details: Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 27 October 1915; Rank from Nominal Roll: Private; Unit from Nominal Roll: 58th Battalion; Fate: Killed in Action 5 July 1918; Age at death from cemetery records: 27; Commemoration details: Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France; Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial: 100; Miscellaneous information from cemetery records Parents: George Charles and Louisa Arpin TAYLOR, Don Road, Healesville, Victoria; AIF connections Brother: 5741 Corporal Jack TAYLOR, 14th Bn, returned to Australia, 2 June 1919.

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy. The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra. On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours. After the war an appeal in Australia raised 22,700 Pounds, of which 12,500 Pounds came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.