The WW2 Exploits in Italy with the SOE of Past Master Ron Taylor

*Ronald G Taylor BSc CEng FICE FIStructE FFB FWeldI; 1985/86 - see below Ron as Master.

Ron was born in Brighton in 1916.  After attending Varndean Grammar School, he obtained an external University of London BSc(Eng) degree at Brighton Technical College, and joined AE Watson as structural designer.  During the War, Ron served in the Royal Engineers, rising from Sapper to Captain.  He worked on the original Bailey Bridge at the Military Engineering Experimental Establishment, and in 1943 joined the Special Operations Executive. In 1944, Ron parachuted into occupied North-east Italy, and spent five months blowing up trains with the partisans.  After the war, he was in public works with the Allied Military Government in Trieste until 1946, when he rejoined AE Watson as technical manager.  Ron spent a short period as a lecturer at his old college, and in 1948 joined Costain John Brown Ltd.  There followed a period with Tubewrights Ltd as a development engineer, then Ron went to Stewarts & Lloyds, later part of British Steel Tubes Division.  He had a major hand in developing and establishing structural engineering with tubes and hollow sections, notably the Boeing 747 hangar at Heathrow airport.  Ron left British Steel at the age of 59, and set up his own practice as a consulting engineer.  Ron was a member of the Council of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Surrey University.  He continued to work into his eighties, and died in 2002, aged 86. (with grateful thanks to his son Dr R G Taylor for this update)

The following is from page 132 of the attached pdf file on the exploits of the SOE in Italy in WW2.

here is the pdf file on SOE