Lady Diana Taylour

A little background information first. In 1999 I started researching the life of Lady Diana Taylour. She lived in Oakville from 1936-1957 and someone felt that her grave deserved a flag on Remembrance Day. They couldn’t find the proof required by the Town, could I help. Well I found an obituary that provided the information the Town required. But…It caught my imagination. I couldn’t let this lady go. There was something about the obituary that had me wanting to know more.

It took me nearly 10 years but I finally found the real Lady Diana Taylour. In 2012 I wrote about it on my blog. It is a three part series. Part One, Part Two, Part Three

While I was doing this research on Lady Diana Taylour I had never seen a picture of her. I commented on this in the last post of the series.

Well image my surprise last week when on International Women’s Day I opened an email from a lady who was collaterally related to Lady Diana Taylour! She had found my blog posts! In the email she included a picture of Lady Diana Taylour taken in the 1940s. It is hard to make out the year it might be 1943. This is the first time I have ever laid eyes on the lady who captivated my life for so long! She was wearing her khaki green uniform as I had been told by many people she wore constantly. She looked familiar to me and it is how I imagined her to look.

I have permission to share the picture here with you so here is the moment when I finally put a face to the Lady Diana Taylour.

 

 

© 2017 Blair Archival Research – All Rights Reserved

The story of Lady Diana Taylour is a wonderful adventure. Click here to read part one and here to read part 2.

A search of the 1901[1] England census proved a little confusing at first. Benjamin Taylor was found and he was born in Langham Norfolk. He had a son Edward born in Norfolk but no daughter Kate. His wife is not Kate but Emmeline. There are three new sons Harry, John and Frank. Benjamin and Frank were found in Toronto with Diana. The age difference between Frank and Harry is 7 years. This is the right family because the ever faithful servant Emma Buttle is still with them. A marriage record was found for Emmeline and Benjamin. They married in 1898[2]. Kate Taylor had died in 1896.[3] She had caught measles while pregnant and as a result of a premature birth and congestion of the lungs she did not survive.

Benjamin was known to be in Canada in the 1930s. I have his wife and sons names so did a census search. The 1906[4] Northwest Canada census was online and indexed at this time. I did not know where in Canada Benjamin was but took a chance because Diana’s obituary said she came from western Canada and Benjamin and Frank were living with her in Toronto. The chance paid off when I found Benjamin and his wife Ree along with his sons John, Harry and Frank in Winnipeg Manitoba. The family arrived in Canada circa 1905. In the 1911[5] Canada census Benjamin and his family were found in West Kildonan, Selkirk, Manitoba.

Since the family was still all together in 1911 a search was done of the First World War Canadian Expeditionary Force[6] attestation papers to see if John and Harry could be found. Harry was with the Cameron Highlanders and John with the Quebec Regiment.

Harry came home but John died of influenza in December of 1918. John had been wounded in the shoulder and had several different maladies during his service. Frank was too young to fight.

Diana’s grave marker has O.B.E. after her name so a researcher in London was hired to search the records for the Order of the British Empire. They did not find anything for the O.B.E. but did find an entry in The Times newspaper which was interesting. Katherine Diana Taylour was fined for drunk driving while driving for the Canadian Forestry Corps in January 1919. [7]

In the meantime I had been going through every Oakville[8] newspaper from 1936 to 1957 to find information. Diana was found advertising her business selling Avon products and giving a donation to the new cenotaph. The papers were checked for each Remembrance Day but no pictures and very few references to the parade were found.

She was mentioned twice in the Court Reports once as the prosecution and once as the defence. Diana was accused of not paying someone but was let off when it was noted that she had written paid in full on the final cheque.[9] The other one was far more interesting. P. Tiny Walker[10] was accused of assaulting Lady Diana Taylour and Jean Riddell. He threw fruit and slapped them.

An Archivist at Library and Archives Canada helped me find a reference to the Women’s Legion in the Canadian Forestry Corps records. There were three boxes and a reference was found for a Miss K. Taylor[11] who joined the Corps as part of the Women’s Legion on 14 August 1918 just before the end of the war. I was not sure it was her.

Then a reference was found to the drunk driving charge and the Forestry Corps did not seem to make much of it in the documentation. They were more concerned with the license and car numbers being correct. The report of the drunk driving charge is the first time we find Diana calling herself Taylour instead of Taylor and she was recorded as being with the Canadian Forestry Corps. Diana was discharged from the Canadian Forestry Corp in March 1919.

More research into the Stone family found that Diana’s maternal aunt married Edward Stone who was also the executor of her grandfather’s estate. When the 1911 England census was released Diana was found in the household of her aunt Annie Stone and is called May Taylor. I finally found her in the 1901 England census. The Stone family was found living in Beckenham Kent. Edward Stone was a director of a drapery company. Diana is again referred to as May Taylor.

Diana was found on the passenger lists arriving in Canada. The entry said she was Katherine Taylour, age 30, going to her father in Winnipeg and leaving her aunt in Streatham. She arrived in Quebec on the Montclare on 22 October 1926.[12]

After the First World War many women reinvented themselves and created a new life. Two million women were to be forever single and without a family due to the loss of men during the war. Kate Taylor was one of many women whose personal history was changed by events and themselves.

Her new life was actually created from the lives of many who were close to her. She was born Kate May Taylor. Her new name became Katherine Diana May Taylor. It was discovered that her grandmother Bishop was called Diana. The addition of Harwood in the 1940 National Registration Questionnaire is a tribute to her aunt Anne Bishop Stone, Harwood was her middle name. She added a ‘u’ to Taylor and took a peerage family as her own.

As for the medals, well she applied for them. They could have come from her brothers. It is not known what happened to Edward Taylor so she may have gotten some from him. She had four brothers, but only two that we know of fought in the war, and she lost one brother at the end of the war. She didn’t drive an ambulance at the front during the war but in Canterbury.

Diana did move to Oakville from Western Canada as she was going to Winnipeg in 1926 when she arrived in Canada. As to loosing money in the stock market we will never know.

Lady Diana Taylour was not the youngest nurse in the military and did not get a medal from Joffre in the field of battle. Her brother John was wounded in the shoulder during battle but it seems unlikely that Diana was wounded.

The story does not end here however. I found a member of Diana’s family. They knew of Diana but they did not know much about her.

No picture has been found of Lady Diana Taylour so I still do not know what she looks like. I have been told she was short, stocky and always wore a green khaki uniform probably from her Women’s Legion days.

It took ten long years of research and thinking outside the box but I finally found the real story behind the myth of Lady Diana Taylour. I am very glad I followed my instincts as I wouldn’t have missed this ride for anything in the world.

NOTE: Do you or anyone you know have any information on Diana’s brother Edward Benjamin Taylor? He was born 18 June 1888 in Mautby and the birth was registered in The Fleggs County Norfolk. If so please contact me as I would love to learn more about him.

 

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

The story of Lady Diana Taylour is a wonderful adventure. Click here to read part one.

Now that an address was known the London city directories were searched. A few of these directories are available at the Toronto Reference Library. The family listed at that address was Stone. The 1901 England census had been released but no references could be found.

The Toronto Reference Library has the online searchable databases for the Toronto Daily Star and the Globe and Mail newspapers. A blanket search for Diana Taylour was done to see if anything came up. It did.

References were found for Lady Diana and Jean Riddell opening a gas station at Post Corners north of Oakville. My research to date has provided no documentation on this event other than the newspaper article. She was a honourary president at the London Ontario Coronation Unit for Ex British Servicewomen. The most interesting item found in the newspapers was an advertisement for a shop she had on Yonge Street. This led me to the Toronto city directories found at the Toronto Reference Library.

Diana showed up once in the directories under her business and a home address. A cross reference for Taylor was done for the home address in the directories. Benjamin who was a superintendent at London Life Insurance and Frank who worked with the Toronto Real Estate Board were found living in the same house as Diana. Who were they?

The next things happened almost at the same time. I had ordered a copy of Diana’s 1940 National Registration Questionnaire but was waiting for it as it takes about two months to receive the information. While waiting for the questionnaire an entry was found in the 1891[1] England census with Benjamin Taylor living in Norfolk with a daughter Kate who was 10 months old. A birth certificate was ordered.  It stated she was born Kate May Taylor[2] in 1890 in Weybourne and her parents were Benjamin Taylor and Kate Bishop.

The 1891 England census had already given me her mother’s maiden name because her grandmother Ann F. Bishop was living with the family. Also in the household were Diana’s brother Edward B. Taylor and a servant Emma Buttle.

A marriage[3] certificate for Benjamin and Kate confirmed Kate’s maiden name was Bishop. Kate’s father was John and Benjamin’s father was William.

The 1940[4] National Registration Questionnaire gave me even more information. Diana still gave her year of birth as 1896 but she gave the right birth date of 28 May. It states that she and her parents were born in Norfolk. Diana added something new to her name; she was now Katherine Diana May Harwood Taylour.

The new gem was that she arrived in Canada in 1926. Diana said that she could speak French; ran a private rest home and guest home, was a good cook, qualified mechanic and could drive a fire engine. She could also handle horses, drive – automobiles, trucks and a tractor, and was an organizer of girls. She gave her occupation as U.R.C.W. Hon Pres Coronation Unit 2 London Ontario 1 year duration and nursing home matron 8 years duration.

Diana gave more information on her First World War military career. It said in the last war she drove a private ambulance for four and half years and was a column leader of ambulances after the war for eighteen months.

She wanted to help in the Second World War by being trained and serving on the home front. Diana said she would like to run training for women and work overseas or home defense.

To be continued…

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved