Lord William Taylour, the younger son of Geoffrey Thomas Taylour, fourth marquess of Headfort (1878–1943), and Rosie Boote (1878 - 1958), an actress at the Gaiety Theatre, London, was an established British archaeologist of the 20th century, specialising in Mycenaean Greece. A latecomer to the field, and pushed to follow a career first in the diplomatic service (1921–2), and then in banking on Wall Street, New York (while his brother went up to Oxford), Lord Taylour writes how he spent many years in depression before he turned to his love of archaeology. Educated at Harrow School (1917 - 1921), his passion for archaeology is there to see in his schoolbooks from a young age.
Having served during the Second World War in the North African campaign with the 2nd Derbyshire yeomanry (TA) and attaining the rank of captain, in 1947 Lord Taylour jumped ship to read archaeology and anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1947. He graduated in 1950, taught by some of the greats of the day, including Glyn Daniel and Graheme Clark. Going on to work with Kathleen Kenyon and J. B. Ward-Perkins at the excavation in Sabrathah, Tripolitania (1948), Taylour was awarded a doctorate in 1955 for his work on Mycenaean pottery in Italy, which he then published as his first book in 1958, entitled 'Mycenean Pottery in Italy, and Adjacent Areas' (1958).
After working with Joan Du Plat Taylor in the joint Ashmolean Museum and Sydney University excavation of Myrtou-Pighades on Cyprus, he began his work with Alan Wace at the British excavations in Mycenae in 1952 and 1953. He succeeded on all fronts, having the chance to work with not just the Wace family but also Carl Blegen at Pylos.
Taylour's big break came in 1957 following the death of Alan Wace. Though reluctant to take it on, as the correspondence reveals, he took up where Wace left off as director of the excavations at Mycenae, from 1959 - 1969. During his tenure as Director, further Linear B tablets were discovered, as well as evidence for a cult site within the walls of the acropolis. At the suggestion of Glyn Daniel, he then published a book on his findings, 'The Mycenaeans' (1964), which went on to become a classic and a staple resource for the subject.
Taylour also directed the excavation, over six seasons, of the Bronze Age site of Hagios Stephanos in southern Laconia (1959 to 1977). He travelled to Greece most summers for study of the Mycenae finds held at Nauplion museum, together with Dr Lisa French and various invited specialists. He continued his work on the publication of the Mycenae excavations until his death in 1989, establishing the Well Built Mycenae series of fasicules.
Up until the very end, Lord Taylour was full of life and energy, driving students on Land Rover and VW trips all over Europe even in1988, when he was 84 years old. He worked tirelessly, not just in his field, but in his hobbies of photography and letter writing, both of which are at the heart of this collection. Known for wearing his characteristic Egyptianizing headdress (to protect his bald head, first adopted during his war service in the North African desert), shorts, and a bush shirt at excavations, and smoking away on a pipe, and wearing his clothes out until they were in tatters, Lord Taylour cut a distinctive figure. He liked to take photgraphs but he loathed to be in them. As his correspondence reveals, Lord Taylour was a generous man, and his dogs were his family. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Lord Taylour's deep faith, compassion and conviction is evident throughout the collection. Above all else, Lord Taylour was a man who loved his field, his dogs, his family and friends, and exploring the world he lived in, past and present.
'Taylour, Lord William Desmond', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-67874?rskey=Jnp2bN&result=1