Taylor A E

 A E Taylor

 A member of a large family with Labour-supporting parents, and a father who was a toolmaker.

 At 13, he started a half-time job, to help out at home, and at the age of 17 got work in a toolmaker's firm, and later with a big engineering firm.

There he joined the AEU, which also led him to politics when a branch member lent the 18-year old `The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’. 

He was involved in workshop meetings and one or two strikes. By his 20s he gradually became more active in his union branch, and in 1941 was asked by the tool room to take on the job of shop steward. Although he admitted to being a little slow in getting over the propaganda about `Reds’, he did eventually join  the Communist Party. In only a very short time, he was asked to take over the factory group leadership.

 Source: “How I joined the Communist Party” (Sept 1942)