Reg at the RAMC Sergeants Mess
Reg in the jungle!
Clem - Reg's dog for many years!
Feeding Time!
Reg and MBE!
Reg toasts the opening of the Violette Szabo GC Museum!
Remembrance Sunday 2003 at the Victory, Hereford
|
In a flurry of articles in local newspapers, many paid tribute to his extreme sense of humour which never failed to impress people from all walks of life.
Other's told of his class of students wrapping him in bandages so that he could not move during a training session and then taking him outside the old camp gates intending to carry him down to the pub.
This soon ended when they dumped him on the pavement. A passerby stopped and called for an ambulance, this duly arrived and fortunately the ambulance crew had a sense of humour!
The day he lost his front teeth to the side of a police car as his bike crashed into it and his bravery in applying medical aid during active service, all add up to a remarkable career in the Royal Army Medical Corps and whilst serving with 22 Special Air Service Regiment.
Always smiling, telling endless jokes and a friend to animals and humans alike, he is still missed by many.
Reg with Blue - Lugwardine 1978
Reg with little brother!
First published on Thursday 22 January 2004 in the
Hereford Times
SAS's medic Reg mourned
AT the age of two Reg Tayler was saved from German bombs when his mother pushed him under a strong table. She did not survive the air raid but he did and went on to serve his country and to become a hero in his own right.
Reg, later adopted, grew up to become an Army nurse and was attached to Hereford's 22 SAS Regiment for 12 years, travelling with its soldiers all over the world.
His work, in many dangerous operations, did not go unnoticed and in 1976 he was appointed an MBE.
Although he had no family Reg had many friends and his death at St Michael's Hospice on Saturday at the age of 65 has been greeted with much sadness.
He had been ill for some time but was at one of his favourite haunts, the Barrells, on Friday evening where he was renowned as a great talker.
His connection with the SAS began in 1965 and lasted until 1977. Where the men went, he went and as well as caring for his comrades he trained many people in the regiment, and across the world in the skills of being a medic.
When he left the SAS he did not return to his regiment, the RAMC, but went back to the Middle East to work in Oman.
Friends going through his papers have found stacks of letters expressing appreciation for his work, including one from the Sultan of Oman.
In a second career he went to work for Phillips Petroleum, working on oil rigs in the seas round Norway helping to tend injured riggers and coping with the perils of deep sea diving.
But his heart was in Hereford and the SAS and, on retirement, he returned to the city which he considered home.
One of his many friends, who has been arranging his funeral, Peter Amor, said although Reg went through many tough experiences he was a man of compassion, always ready to help people.
He had a quirky sense of humour and Mr Amor recalled Reg going to the aid of a lady who was distressed at the sight of a dead and bloated hedgehog in her garden pond.
He offered to deal with it and when she looked through the window she saw he had buried it and was standing to attention, with a military salute.
Mike Colton, now of the Allied Special Forces Association, remembers Reg putting him through a six week patrol medic course in 1973 when the SAS was based at Bradbury Lines.
"He had this special way of putting you through the course in a comical way as opposed to the cruel reality of being a medic serving in action," he said.
A big turnout is expected at the funeral at St Martin's Church in Hereford on Saturday at 9am, to be followed by cremation.
A few months later Reg's ashes were scattered in the new 22 SAS cemetery at Credenhill, Herefordshire.
In April 2005 a tree was planted to Reg in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove a commemorative plaque will be added later.
|
