Arthur Taylor: Dunkirk veteran whose memories shaped Hollywood blockbuster
TRIBUTES have been paid to one of the last remaining survivors of the Dunkirk evacuation after he died aged 98.
Arthur Taylor, who lived in Christchurch, queued for 29 hours on the French beach in 1940 and endured fire from German aircrafts before being transported back to the UK. But in an embodiment of the true Dunkirk spirit he was instantly back in action on his return, helping the Battle of Britain effort.
In all he served 36 years in the Royal Air Force and passed on his Dunkirk experience to Hollywood director Christopher Nolan in the making of the recent hit film Dunkirk, even walking the red carpet alongside stars Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy.
Arthur was also President of the Dunkirk Veterans at the time of his death and had gone back to Dunkirk on its 65th, 70th and 75th anniversaries.
The last, which happened in 2015, proved highly emotional as Arthur fulfilled his wish of making the 2km march through the town – where the veterans were cheered as they walked through the streets by residents of the small French town.
Arthur was very proud to lay a wreath at the memorial alongside grandsons Stuart, a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines, and Ian, a captain in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
“He was full of life,” Arthur’s son Nicholas said. “As far as family was concerned he helped them all, nothing was too great for his family.”
Arthur was born in London, to Hugh Arthur, a cobbler, and Florence. His father had served with the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War but was sent home after being gassed at Ypres to help man the big gun at Hartlepool. It was there he met his future wife, who was a nurse.
As a youngster Arthur attended the local schools, including a grammar school, and luck struck when representatives from the department store Harrods visited seeking out two people to work in its dispatch department and chose Arthur as one of them.
One lunchtime Arthur and his friends were crossing a London park when they came across a Royal Engineers recruiting sergeant and decided to sign up for the Territorial Army. Arthur, who was 16, had to lie about his age to join.
Called up at the outbreak of the Second World War, he left his Harrods role to join the RAF and was selected to be a wireless operator/air gunner. However, Arthur contracted pleurisy while doing his training so had to retrain as a ground-based wireless operator and was part of 13th Squadron.
He was posted out to Amiens and was attached to a Royal Signals unit communicating between the Lysander aircraft and the Royal Artillery, who adjusted the fall of shells.
However, after the Lysanders were ordered back to the UK as the Germans advanced the ground crew were told to make their way to Dunkirk.
The troops were ordered to march and not use vehicles because they could be seized and used by the Germans, meaning Arthur and his comrades had to strip out and sink two vehicles in a canal they found along the way. However, the second time they only did so after finding some casualties and driving them to military hospitals in a bid to shorten their journey on foot.
Nicholas added: “When they got into Dunkirk they walked down the street to a pub and were so thirsty as they had been without food or water for two to three days, they picked up some water bottles and turned them upside down looking for some water – which is in the opening part of the Dunkirk film and was my father’s main contribution after being interviewed by Christopher Nolan.
“My father always remembered how they knocked on the door and begged the owner for some water and how he said he didn’t have any as the water main line had been bombed. But the owner said they could have some vin rouge (red wine) and they said ‘thanks very much’!”
Nicholas said his father remembered on the way he was told by his Lieutenant to change out of his RAF uniform because troops stranded on the beach were taking fire from German planes and expressing their anger against the RAF as there seemed to be no British fighter aircraft fighting it.
As has been proven in the years since, the British fighter planes were in fact on missions over the Channel and France, covering the various ships and attacking the German airfields, therefore preventing the German aircraft attacking 330,000 or so beach-ridden soldiers.
Nicholas added: “He had to take off his RAF uniform and put on a greatcoat from one of the men who died and threw away the RAF shoes they were given and got some galoshes.”
When he got onto the beach Arthur joined the queue for 29 hours before finally managing to get onto HMS Lord Grey, an armed naval trawler.
“He said he lay down on the boat and just fell asleep. He remembers waking up and seeing the sea was just like glass, hardly a ripple on the surface, and he knew they were safe,” Nicholas added.
After returning to the UK Arthur was taken to RAF Hendon. “He always used to tell the story that when he got back the first day the Station Warrant Officer said to them ‘lads I know you’ve just come back from Dunkirk, so as you’d normally have to get up at 6am tomorrow I’m going give you a treat and let you stay in bed ‘til half past six’!”
Arthur was then stationed at RAF Lympne in Kent and RAF Hawkinge, where he worked on Spitfires and Hurricanes that flew in the Battle of Britain.
He then requested to do a Wireless repair course, for which he was accepted and on completion of training was posted to RAF Hendon before being sent to RAF Christchurch.
It was in the town where he met his wife, Vera. The pair were married within six weeks of meeting at Christchurch Priory but because he was 20 and she 19, they had to get permission from the Diocese of Winchester. They honeymooned in Hartlepool.
After the war ended Arthur was demobbed but returned to service, remaining with the RAF until 1975. He had overseas postings to Hong Kong, Bahrain and Singapore – where he won the Pinjat medal – and Kenya, where Arthur was a founding member of the country’s air force.
He finished his career with three postings in Germany before retiring. Arthur and Vera had six children, five boys who all served in the military and a girl who married a serviceman.
Despite his retirement Arthur was full of energy and worked as the accountant for the Mecca Bingo Hall in Christchurch when it was based at The Regent Centre.
He was a welfare officer for the RAF Association, later becoming a lifetime vice-president of the organisation and president of the Dunkirk Veterans Association in Poole and Bournemouth.
Arthur enjoyed passing on his wisdom and visited Twynham School two to three times every year to give a talk to pupils about his life and experiences of war.
He was also regularly invited to high profile events, including garden parties at Buckingham Palace. Among the dignitaries Arthur met were The Queen, Princes Phillip, Charles and Harry as well as celebrities such as Debbie McGee, Anton Du Beke and the late Dame June Whitfield.
He was very keen to share his Dunkirk memories as he believed it vital the lessons of the story be remembered and taught to future generations.
Because of that Arthur became a staple of documentaries as the Dunkirk story gained increasing prominence in recent years.
On one occasion he went back to Dunkirk in the company of BBC historian Dan Snow, the trip being a focal point of the documentary The Little Ships.
Because Arthur was a prominent member of The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, when the film Dunkirk was being made, its historian Joshua Levine – from the Imperial War Museum – pointed director Christopher Nolan in his direction.
Mr Levine and Mr Nolan came to Christchurch and sat down with Arthur, asking him about the atmosphere, noise and finer details and based some of its scenes around his answers.
When the film was released Arthur was invited to, and afforded VIP status at, a preview and the Leicester Square Premiere, where he mingled with the stars and professed the film a terrific rendition of Dunkirk.
Arthur suffered a fall at home in November and died in Poole General Hospital after Christmas. He leaves behind Vera, their six children, 13 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and a host of friends and military colleagues. His funeral will be held on February 1st at Bournemouth Crematorium at 2pm.
