James Sheppard Taylor was the son of Peter and Helen Chalmers Taylor, 73 Main Street, Kinnoull, Perth and the husband of Evelyn Darbyshire, 7 Kelvinside Terrace West, Glasgow.

Sunday Post 23rd July 1944

“GLADLY HE LIVED, GLADLY HE DIED"

“Captain James S. Taylor, padre of a battalion of a well-known Scottish regiment, met his death bringing cheer to his men in the front line in Normandy."

“It was characteristic of the man. For James Taylor was a forthright soul who never shirked a duty."

“When he decided to enter the Army as a chaplain a friend said to him, ‘Look here, man, I know you. You’ll want to do everything a soldier has to do, and you’ll never stand it - you’ll crack up.’"

“But the difficulties of a job only acted as a challenge to James Taylor. He was twenty years older than the majority of his men, yet he was in the vanguard with them on their long forced marches, night manoeuvres, tests of endurance - all the arduous training of modern infantry."

“James Taylor had set himself a standard which he would never lower. Once when a proposal was being discussed for his church in Glasgow, he declared, ‘We’ll have nothing but the best for the Stevenson Memorial.’ Nothing but the best! That was his ideal as man, minister, and padre."

“In his 4½ years as chaplain he made ‘the kirk in the battalion’ a reality by his sincerity and bigness of heart and mind. Do you wonder that 400 of his men joined the church?"

“There’s a story - it was told me just the other day - of a private who was surprised to see a soldier from another regiment in conversation with Captain Taylor. ‘D’ye know oor padre? he asked. ‘Oh, yes’ was the reply. ‘He’s my minister at home.’ ‘Well, you’re lucky, for he’s a fine chap, oor padre. He kens a’ the scamps in the battalion.’"

“Now I don’t suppose any of us believe there are scamps in any Scottish regiment! Oh no! A few are a wee bit throuither maybe, just a trifle wild and careless!"

“These were the very chaps James Taylor got to know best. He purposely sought them out. He did what he could to turn them from their ways - not by namby-pambyism, but by straight from the shoulder stuff - and he could put it over too!"

“He was only a few weeks in Normandy when he was killed. This was the manner of his death:— ‘In a day of very stiff fighting he spent most of it up in the front line, passing from one group of men to another, giving them encouragement and cheer. He had just visited the wounded in the regimental aid post when a shell burst on it. All the occupants of the post were wounded, Captain Taylor was killed.’"

“It is a proud epitaph. For remember, Rev. James Shepherd Taylor, as minister of a great Glasgow church, was a volunteer. He could not see others - many less fortunately placed than he - gallantly facing danger for an ideal without sharing it with them."

“Gladly he lived, gladly he died - in a great cause.”

James Taylor was known to his men as “James, by the Grace of God”, he is also commemorated on the Stevenson Memorial Church War Memorial and the Glasgow University Roll of Honour.