William was born in 1919. His brother was Private Ernest Taylor, who also served with The Sherwood Foresters Regiment. William enlisted at Lincoln on the 29th of October 1936.  He was discharged on the 20th of September 1937 and then re-enlisted on the 21st of September 1937. He served with the 1st Battalion. 

William served at home from the 21st of September 1937 to the 9th of March 1939.  He then served in Palestine from the 10th of March 1939 with the 1st Battalion; this is where the Battalion were at the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-45). William later moved with the 1st Battalion to Cyprus in 1941, and North Africa, in 1942. William and the Battalion were at Tobruk in June 1942 and were involved in the general surrender.   

William, and the Battalion, were taken prisoner by Germans at Tobruk. He became Prisoner number 33534.  William was held in several POW camps in Italy and Germany between the 20th of June 1942 and the 11th of May 1945, the last known being Stalag 344 at Lambsdorf.   

William was repatriated in 1945.  He continued to serve in the UK, from the 12th of May 1945 to the 14th of June 1946. William was medically discharged on the 6th of July 1946; he had served 8 years and 289 days.   

He died of natural causes in 1991 and is buried at Kirton Lindsey, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.