Born on 21 October 1911 the second son of Robert Taylor, a fruiterer, and his wife née Young, he was educated at Hillhead High School, Glasgow and Glasgow University, where he graduated in science in 1933 and qualified in medicine in 1936. He served as resident surgical officer at Bolton Royal Infirmary, and was medical superintendent and surgeon at the Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, and at Driffield Emergency Hospital during the war of 1939-45. He took the Fellowship, though not previously a Member of the College, and the Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1947. He received the MCh degree from Glasgow in 1950, and the Diploma in Medical Radiotherapy of the English Colleges on 9 July 1953, when for reasons of health he decided to practise as a radiotherapist rather than a general surgeon. He was admitted to the Faculty of Radiologists, and appointed assistant radiotherapist under the Leeds Regional Hospital Board. He had been a Hunterian Professor at the College in 1949, when he lectured on acute pancreatitis. Russell Taylor married in 1941 Gladys M Witcombe, who survived him with their son. He died at 74 St Michael's Road, Headingley, Leeds on 29 March 1958, after long illness, aged 46. Publications: Spontaneous rupture of the urinary bladder. *Brit J Urol* 1948, 20, 117. Acute pancreatitis. *Ann Roy Coll Surg Engl* 1949, 5, 213. Wilms' tumour. *Brit J Surg* 1950, 37, 283.