Lionel Robert Stewart Taylor was born on 4 November 1915 at Szechuan, West China, where his father was a missionary. He was educated at Monkton Combe School, Bath, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Board Diploma and the MB ChB Cantab in 1940. He played rugby football for his school, college, and hospital. After a house surgeon's appointment at St Thomas's he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and served for the rest of the war as a Surgeon-Lieutenant in destroyers, mostly in the Mediterranean. On return to civilian life he took the FRCS in 1946 and then concentrated on otolaryngology, becoming chief assistant in the ENT department at St Thomas's. He spent three months in 1948 as a Travelling Fellow in the ENT department at Yale University, which considerably increased his self-confidence, for he was naturally inclined to be modest and self-critical. In 1950 Taylor was appointed to Charing Cross Hospital and Medical School, where he soon became a very popular member of the staff, serving on various committees and the academic board of the School. Largely due to his foresight and initiative the new Charing Cross Hospital has well equipped otolaryngology services, with special facilities for the training of children with impaired hearing. Sadly he did not live to see that department in being. In addition to his work at Charing Cross he was also on the staff of the Royal Masonic Hospital, and of the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. In 1962 he was appointed civilian consultant in otolaryngology to the Royal Navy. Taylor wrote a number of clinical papers which showed acute observation and his enquiring and perceptive mind. For several years he was assistant editor of the *Journal of laryngology and otology*, and later honorary treasurer of the Royal Society of Medicine, and honorary secretary of the British Association of Otolaryngologists. He had several hobbies, the most important of which was motor sport, and he attended Monte Carlo rallies between 1954 and 1963, and was on the medical panel of the RAC. He was also keen on stamp collecting and gardening. Taylor was married in 1945, and when he died after a short terminal illness on 6 November 1982 at the age of 57 he was survived by his wife, a son and two daughters, one of whom is an SRN.