Taylor was born in India under the British Raj. However he was sent to boarding school in England at the age of six, rarely seeing his parents after that. When Kim was nine his father died and the following year he started to attend Sevenoaks School, which he soon regarded as home. When the Second World War commenced, Taylor was 17. He returned to India, taking up a teaching post at St Paul's School, Darjeeling. In 1942 he was commissioned into the Indian Army and served in Burma campaign, being evacuated from Akyab.