John Lowther du Plat Taylor
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Colonel John Lowther du Plat Taylor CB VD (1829 – 5 March 1904) was the founder of the Army Post Office Corps and the Post Office Rifles.
Du Plat Taylor trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but left in 1844 before he was commissioned.[1] He then joined the Consular Service and was posted to China but was invalided back home after just two years. He joined the General Post Office in 1852 and worked as a Private Secretary to the Secretary of the Post Office, Sir Rowland Hill and then to Postmaster General.[2]
His lifelong association with the Volunteer Movement began in 1860 when he joined the Civil Service Rifle Volunteers as an ensign. He was promoted to captain and by 1865 he held the rank of major.
He formed the 49th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers in 1868 and was its commanding officer until 1896. In 1880 the regiment was renumbered 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers and he was appointed its honorary Colonel on 27 February 1901.[3]
He proposed at his regiment's 1872 annual prize giving the formation of a reservist Telegraph and Postal Corps[4] and in 1877 the War Office established a committee "to consider the formation of a Corps for the performance of Postal Duties in the Field".[5] The War Office rejected the committee's recommendation that such an organisation should be formed, reasoning that it would be too expensive. However, in mid July 1882 du Plat Taylor was authorised by the Postmaster General, Henry Fawcett and the Secretary of State for War, Hugh Childers to organise an Army Post Office Corps (APOC), and on Saturday 22 July 1882 Queen Victoria issued a Royal Warrant to that effect.
The Army Post Office Corps was formed from 'M' Company 24th Middlesex Rifles Volunteers and deployed on active service during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Their service resulted in them becoming the first Volunteer unit to earn a Battle Honour (Egypt 1882). The APOC also saw active service during the Suakin Expedition (1884–85) and the Second Boer War (1899–1902).
In 1913 the APOC was reformed as the Royal Engineers (Postal Section) Special Reserve.
Career after 1870
He resigned his position with the General Post Office in 1870 to take up a new appointment as the Secretary and General Manager of the East and West India Docks Company (E&WIDC), at the time the largest docking operation in the world. Between 1882 and 1886, under his stewardship, the company purchased the marsh land upon which was built Tilbury Docks. The Tilbury Docks were officially opened on 17 April 1886. He was at the helm of the company when the London Dock Strike (1889) began at the West India Docks.
He was awarded a CB in June 1887 for services to the Volunteer Movement.[6]
Du Plat Taylor died on 5 March 1904 and was buried with full military honours at Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey.[7]