Surgeon-General Sir WILLIAM TAYLOK, K.C.B., M.D.Glasg., Late Director-General Army Medical Service.

We regret to announce the death of Surgeon-General Sir William Taylor, K.C.B., late Director-General, Army Medical Service, which took place at Windsor on the 10th April. Sir William Taylor was the third son of the late James Taylor of Etruria, Staffordshire, and of Moorfield, Ayrshire, where he was born in 1843. He received his early education at Carmichael, in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, whence he went to the University of Glasgow for the study of medicine, receiving its degrees of M.D. and C.M. in 1864. In the same year he obtained a commission as assistant surgeon in the Army Medical De- partment, and from 1865 to 1869 he served in Canada, where he took part in the operations against the Fenian raiders, and received the medal. In 1870, after his return to England, he Obituary. 293

was gazetted to the Royal Artillery, and three years later he went to India, where in 1877 he took part in the Jowaki Afridi expedition, for which he received the medal. He left India in 1880 for a brief period of service in England, but returned in 1882, and in 1885 was appointed surgeon to Sir Frederick Roberts, then Commander-in-Chief in India. He served through the Burma campaign of 1885-86 on the staff of the Commander- in-Chief, and was mentioned in dispatches. In 1888 he served with the Hazara Expedition, and in 1888-89 he again served in the Burmese campaign. His Indian service terminated in 1893, when he was appointed to headquarters in London. In the following year he was appointed medico-military attache to the Japanese Army during the Chino-Japanese war, and received the Japanese war medal at its close. He was principal medical officer of the Ashanti Expedition, 1895-96, the success of which was largely due to the sanitary and other measures which he instituted for the preservation of the health of the troops. His services were recognised by the bestowal upon him of the star granted for the campaign, and by his special promotion to the rank of surgeon-major-general. In 1896 he became professional assistant to the Director-General, and in 1898 he was appointed principal medical officer of the expedition to Khartoum, being present at the battle of Omdurman, and receiving the C.B., the medal, the Khedive's bronze star, and the Medjidie. From 1898 to 1901 he held the post of principal medical officer to the in India, which he relinquished on his appoint- ment as Director-General of the Army Medical Service in December, 1901. In that year he was gazetted honorary physician to the King, and in 1902 he received the K.C.B. Soon ' afterwards the University of Glasgow bestowed upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. He held the post of Director- General till December, 1904, when he retired after a three years' tenure of office, during which many measures of reform were effected, and the reorganisation of the Army Medical Corps was successfully carried out. From first to last he had served the army for forty years, and even after his retirement he continued to be interested in the medical service and to exert his influence in the direction of progress. He was a man of strong character and at the same time of winning personality, and he was universally popular in the Army Medical Service. Though his 294 Obituary.

advancing years had well earned him his retirement, he re- sponded at once to the call of the present emergency, and had recently been serving as commandant of the British Red Cross Military Hospital at Englefield Green. The funeral, which took place at Windsor Cemetery on 14th April, was attended, among others, by representatives of Prince and Princess Christian, and of the staff of nurses of the Princess Christian Military Hospital, and by Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B., Director-General A.M.S.; Sir William Babtie, V.C., K.C.M.G., D.M.S., ; Sir Launcelotte Gubbins, K.C.B., late Director-General, A.M.S.; Peterkin, D.D.M.S., London District; Sir John Furley, representing the British Red Cross Society ; and the Mayor of Windsor.