page_title: Richard Taylor (British Army officer)
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Taylor (British Army officer) / Military career
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of the sole surviving 64 pounder 64 cwt Mk I rifled muzzle-loading gun, mounted on a replica carriage. At the Duke of Cumberland's bastion at Fort George, Inverness, Scotland.
context_page_description: General Sir Richard Chambré Hayes Taylor GCB was a senior British Army officer who served in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Joining the General Staff in 1860, he was the British Army's Inspector General of Recruiting, then Deputy Adjutant-General to the Forces, briefly Adjutant-General, and finally for three years Governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was also Colonel of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and the East Surrey Regiment.
  Some members of the family preferred the spelling Taylour.
context_section_description: Taylor was commissioned as an ensign into the British Army's 79th Foot on 11 December 1835. On 29 March 1839 he was promoted Lieutenant and on 23 August 1844 Captain. During his early career he served both at home and overseas. In 1852 and 1853 he fought with the 18th Royal Irish in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. During the Crimean War he was part of the force on active service in the Crimea, from 1854 to 1855. On 12 December 1854 he was promoted lieutenant colonel, confirmed on 9 March 1855, and commanded the 79th Cameron Highlanders as part of the Highland Brigade. He fought with his regiment at the Battles of Alma and Balaclava and at the Siege of Sebastopol, at which he was mentioned in despatches. At Sebastopol, he commanded the Royal Artillery of the Highland Division. From 1856 to 1857, Taylor was in command of the Fort George Depot Battalion near Inverness. He next served with the 79th in India, from 1857 to 1859, and was there during the Mutiny. In command of the 79th, he took part in the Capture of Lucknow in March 1858. He commanded a brigade in Oude from November 1858 to January 1859. In 1860 he joined the General Staff in England, then held a variety of posts, in the course of which he was promoted major general on 6 March 1868, lieutenant general on 23 August 1877, and finally general on 30 January 1880.
  In 1862, Taylor was assistant adjutant general for the British Army Division at Shorncliffe and Dover. In 1873, he was appointed as the Army's Inspector General of Recruiting. He remained in this post until 1876, when he was appointed as Deputy Adjutant-General to the Forces. In 1882, Taylor took over the role of adjutant-general while Sir Garnet Wolseley was overseas in command of British forces during the Second Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882.
  His last posting, as governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was effective from 1 January 1883 and lasted until 1886, when he retired the service.
  In 1876, Taylor was chairman of the Royal United Services Institute. From 1887 until his death, he was Colonel of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, in which role he was succeeded by General Sir Ian Hamilton. He was also Colonel of the 2nd Battalion the East Surrey Regiment.
  Taylor was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902, and was invested by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.
caption: Fort George, Inverness, which Taylor commanded in 1856–57, with a Mark I rifled muzzle-loading 64-pounder gun
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