DONALD FARQUHAR TAYLOR, R.C.M.P.

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DONALD FARQUHAR TAYLOR, R.C.M.P. (ret.) "V E 4 D F" Age 89: 1911 - 2000 Donald Farquhar Taylor, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on October 13, 1911, died in Winnipeg, Manitoba on December 1, 2000. He came from a family rich in Canadian maritime and military history. His maternal grandfather, James Augustus Farquhar, born in Musquodoboit, N.S. in 1842, became a Master in Sail and then in Steam, founded the Farquhar Steamship Line, and authored his autobiography, "Farquhars Luck." His statue stands in the Maritime Museum in Halifax. Mr. Taylors mother, Bertha Mabel Anderson Farquhar, was born in 1878 on board his grandfathers square-rigger, the Cumberland, in Berkinhead Docks in England. His father, William Taylor, born 1861 in Halifax, served in the regular Canadian army, retiring as a Captain. Mr. Taylors elder brother, Lt. Benjamin Anderson Taylor, was killed in action in the First World War at age 20 while commanding a machine gun corps in Lyons, France, in 1917. After finishing his primary and secondary schooling in Halifax, Mr. Taylor joined the Nova Scotia Trust Co. as a Junior Clerk and Transfer Officer. At age 18 he and his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked daytimes and attended evening accounting classes at Boston University. Following his fathers death in 1931, he returned to Halifax in the midst of the Great Depression. Experiencing unstable, low wage employment, he attended the Marconi Wireless School and became licensed to operate aboard ships or at coastal stations. He also qualified for an Advanced Radio License. (He maintained his ham operators license until his 89th birthday, and for 54 years broadcast regularly on Ham Radio as VE4DF.) During the Depression Mr. Taylor sought employment stability by joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at age 22. Entering in 1933, he stayed on for 20 years until retiring as Sergeant. Intending to switch to a career in aviation, in his spare time he attended and passed the Ground School course in aviation in 1935. Instead, he chose to pursue his interest in communications within the Force. In 1936 he became the Communications Officer for the RCMP based in Winnipeg. He initiated the first mobile and stationary communications system within the RCMP in all of Canada, and over the years organized the installation of all types of communications in Manitoba, including wireless, teletype, radar, HF and VHF. The Winnipeg operations became the model for RCMP communications installed later elsewhere in Canada. Mr. Taylor retired from the RCMP in 1953 to accept a position with Canadian General Electric as Sales Manager for the Mobile Communications Division. After retiring from GE in 1964, for the next 12 years he served as an Inspector of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Labor in the Manitoba Provincial Government, until his third retirement in 1976 at age 65. An excellent natural athlete, in his youth Mr. Taylor played on championship YMCA amateur basketball and tennis teams in Boston, and was a highly ranked singles and doubles tennis player in Nova Scotia. In his later years he curled, and also won several singles and team bowling championships at the Winnipeg Winter Club. He took up golf at 46, twice won the left-handed championship at Niakwa, and continued to play until his mid-80s. His first marriage to Doris Maude Smith of Winnipeg ended with her death from tuberculosis. In 1957 he married a lifelong friend from his Boston days, the recently widowed M. Edna Ross Hyslop, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, and a native of Cape Breton Island, N.S. Mr. Taylor was a life member of Masonic Lodge, Meridian # 140, AF and AM, and a charter member of the RCMP Veterans Association. His memberships also included the Winnipeg Amateur Radio Club, serving as President one year, the Winnipeg Winter Club, Niakwa Golf and Country Club, and the Winnipeg Senior Chamber of Commerce. He was predeceased by his parents, his brother, Benjamin, and his sister, Margaret Lillian Taylor Grant, RN, who lived in Halifax most of her 99 years. He is survived by his wife, M. Edna Ross Hyslop Taylor of Winnipeg; two stepsons, Newton E. Hyslop, Jr., M.D., of New Orleans, Louisiana, and John R. Hyslop of Ashburnham, Massachusetts; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; a nephew, James Kenneth Grant of Halifax, Nova Scotia; many cousins in Nova Scotia, the United States and England; and cherished friends in Winnipeg, especially several generations of the Wright and Tallin families and their spouses. His wisdom, silent strength and lively wit enriched his family and all who were fortunate to know this caring, giving, honorable and humorous man. A celebration of his life will be held for family and friends on Sunday, January 21, 2001 at 2:00 p.m. in the Chalfont Room of The Wellington, 3161 Grant Avenue. A committal service will be held in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the research funds of the Canadian Diabetes Association or the Canadian Cancer Society. His family gratefully acknowledges the loving care and attention he received during his final illness from the Victoria Order of Nurses, the Winnipeg Community and Long-Term Care Program, the staffs of the Wellington and of the Riverview Hospital, his physicians, and certain dear friends who gave immeasurable, constant love and support. THOMSON FUNERAL CHAPELS 783-7211

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 09, 2000