John Lowther du Plat Taylor

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John Lowther du Plat Taylor Esq. (* 1829 - March 5, 1904 in London ) was a British manager , colonel and founder of the Army Post Office Corps to carry out the field postal service .

Life

He came from the French noble family du Plat , whose first representative in Germany was Pierre Joseph du Plat (1657–1709), the progenitor of the Hanoverian line. Members of this German line again entered royal Danish and British services. Plat Taylor was the son of the Royal British Major General George Gustavus Charles William du Plat (1796-1854) and the Pauline Countess von Hardenberg (1800-1876).

Plat Taylor completed his military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and then served as a soldier in Ceylon and Mauritius before entering the consular service in 1844 . He was transferred to China but returned to the UK after two years injured. In 1852 he came to the General Post Office as a clerk and worked a. a. as Secretary to Rowland Hill and Private Secretary to Postmaster General James Graham, 4th Duke of Montrose (1799–1874).

On January 11, 1860, he joined as Captain sideline the volunteers - Corps of Civil Service Rifle Volunteers and came to the 21st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers , where he on June 1, 1865. Major was promoted. In 1868 he formed the unit of the 49th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers and was their commander until 1896 . In 1880 the unit was renamed the 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers , to whose honorary Colonel Plat Taylor was made on February 27, 1901, having previously had the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel .

In 1872 he proposed his military superiors, one of reservists existing Telegraph and Postal Corps building. In 1877 the War Office set up a commission to examine this question, but although the commission had approved this proposal, the War Office initially refused to implement it for fear of excessive costs. It was not until mid-July 1882 that Plat Taylor was commissioned by the then Postmaster General Henry Fawcett and Secretary of War Hugh Childers (1827-1896) to form the Army Post Office Corps (APOC), to which Queen Victoria finally gave her official approval on July 22, 1882 . Plat Taylor formed the APOC from his 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers . It was first used in the British invasion of Egypt during the Urabi movement in 1882 .

Plat Taylor had already given up his post at the General Post Office in 1870 and moved to London's East and West India Docks Company , which built the East India Docks and was able to put it into operation in 1886. First he was secretary, later manager and was appointed director in 1888.

He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nobel Dynamite Company and Vice Chairman of the British South African Explosives Company in London.

He died unexpectedly on March 5, 1904 in his apartment (1 Prince's Mansions, Victoria Street) in London and was buried with full military honors in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking ( Surrey ).

His granddaughter was the British marine archaeologist Joan du Plat Taylor (1906-1983).

Orders and decorations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Edward Wakeling (Ed.): Lewis Carroll's diaries; the private journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) , Volume 3, Lewis Carroll Society, 1995, ISBN 0904117081 and ISBN 9780904117080 , page 132 ( excerpt )
  2. The British almanac , Volume 42, Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1869, page 40 ( digitized version )
  3. Bulletins and other state intelligence , Part 1, 1860, page 76 ( digitized version )
  4. London Gazette . No. 22983, HMSO, London, June 23, 1865, p. 3155 ( PDF , accessed October 21, 2013, English).
  5. Sessional papers , Volume 43, House of Commons, Verlag HM Stationery Off., 1902, page 299 ( excerpt )
  6. ^ Arms & explosives , Vol. 11-12, 1903
  7. St. Martin's-le-grand , volumes 13-14, 1903-1904, page 207 ( excerpt )