Taylor, Donovan Edward (Captain, b.1905 - d.1990)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of SX8980 Captain Donovan Edward Taylor, 2/43 Australian Infantry Battalion, Second Australian Imperial Force, Middle East, 1942.

Wallet 1 of 1 – Consists of one diary of Captain Donovan Edward Taylor, containing entries dated between 10 January and 4 July 1942. This diary was written while Captain Taylor was serving with 2/43 Australian Infantry Battalion in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Northern Africa. In his diary, Captain Taylor writes about his daily duties, organising and delivering rations, travelling to source food, the weather, writing letters, hearing news of the war in Northern Africa and the Pacific, receiving mail from home, making furniture for the officer’s mess, dining with fellow officers, a road accident involving his truck, moving the camp, attending lectures, feeling ill, participating in tactical exercises, being very busy with work, arranging a mobile bath unit, missing his family, desert training, and travelling to Northern Africa. This diary also contains notes relating to the purchasing of rations.

Captain Donovan Edward Taylor enlisted to the Second Australian Imperial Force on 18 July 1940, after previously serving with the Citizen Military Forces. He served with 2/43 Australian Infantry Battalion in the Middle East and New Guinea, and was discharged on 20 November 1945.