Alfred Squire Taylor was born on 6 July 1889 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was educated at Campbell College, Queen's University in Belfast and Edinburgh University, graduating in medicine in 1914 and playing rugby.

At Edinburgh University, Alfred Squire Taylor was president of the university union and captain of the rugby union team in 1911/1912. He represented the Irish national team as a three-quarter on four occasions between 1910 and 1912, once against England, then Scotland, Wales and finally France.

During the First World War, Alfred served as a medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps of the British Army and was attached to the 10th/11th Battalion Highland Light Infantry.

Sent to Mesopotamia on 18 March 1915, he was wounded during the siege of Kut-el-Amara in Iraq and sent home. Recovering from his wounds, he returned to France and Belgium, where he was reunited with his unit, which was plunged into the hell of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

It was in Belgium, near Ypres, that he was killed by a shell explosion on 31st July 1917. Alfred Taylor is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery Extension (Plot III, Row B, Grave 21).