Thomas Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gryfe

Thomas Johnston Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gryfe (* April 27, 1912 in Glasgow, † 13 July 2001 in St Andrews ) was a Scottish politician.

Early years

Thomas Taylor was an orphan at the age of three years, when his father died; his mother had to raise him alone and his two siblings. He attended Bellahouston Academy in his hometown of Glasgow and left school at age 15 to work as an office boy at the Co-operative Wholesale Society. In 1931 he got a scholarship from the company, which led him to Germany for a year. There he became a member of the Young Socialists and also participated in street fighters with supporters of the Nazi Party. After the " seizure of power", he returned to Germany and helped in the escape of eight Austrian opposition politicians. On the day of Austria's annexation to Germany in March 1938 he was in Vienna and personally saw Joseph Goebbels.

The outbreak of World War II crashed Taylor in a moral dilemma, on the one hand he was a convinced pacifist, on the other hand, a fervent opponent of Hitler. Nevertheless, he refused to do military service; later he became a Quaker. He became involved in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration ( UNRAA ) and took after the war large share of the reconstruction in Germany. He was honored with the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1992.

Political career

As a young man Taylor was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP ) and in 1934 was elected at the age of 22 years, in the Glasgow City Council, as at that time the youngest councilor. In 1941 he was set up by the ILP in elections for the lower house. Later, he joined the Labour Party in, then the Social Democratic Party until the 1990s returned to Labour. Taylor was initially an opponent of Scottish independence movements, but later changed his mind. Although in 1993 he opposed the government 's Railways Bill, after the railway was privatized and split up, he always emphasized that he had no objection to privatization in general.

In 1968, Thomas Taylor for Life Peer raised with the title of Baron Taylor of Gryfe of Bridge of Weir in the County of Renfrew. In the House of Lords he sat particularly public access in the British forests.

Other activities

Taylor was president of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Scotland, the consumer society in which he had worked as a young man as an office boy. His Modernierungsversuche after American model fell through, however. Subsequently, he was from 1970 to 1976 chairman of the UK Forestry Commission. From 1971 to 1980 he was Chairman of the Scottish Railways and several other companies, including Morgan Grenfell in Scotland.