Geoffrey Barron Taylor was born on 4 February 1890 in Toronto, Canada, the son of William John Mahaffy Taylor and Stella Bertha Taylor.

He was an accomplished sportsman in football, rugby and especially rowing and was a member of Toronto’s Argonaut Rowing Club. He made history winning five events in one day at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta 1907 in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior Fours and Junior and Senior Eights.

In 1908, he won a bronze medal in the Coxed Eights at the London Summer Olympics, defeated by the eventual gold medal-winning Leander crew from Great Britain in the semi-finals. He also competed in the Olympic Coxless Fours event winning a Bronze.

He studied Applied Science at the University of Toronto between 1910-1913, becoming its Athletic Director in his final year. During this time, he competed again in the Coxed Eights at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. History repeated itself as they were beaten by the Leander crew who went on to win the gold.

He was a student at Trinity College, Oxford when the First World War broke out. Leaving his studies, he was commissioned into the 15th Battalion (48 Highlanders of Canada), Canadian Expeditionary Force. Arriving in England in February 1915, he was soon serving as a lieutenant on the Western Front.

During the Second Battle of Ypres on 24 April 1915, Geoffrey went missing and is presumed to have perished from gas poisoning, one obituary stating, “he was last seen making his way to a deserted farmhouse a short distance back from the trenches.”

Geoffrey was 25 years old, and his body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ieper, Belgium.