He was first born to his parents, Cecil and Cecilia in Queenstown on 30 October 1919. He had dark hair with the most amazing blue eyes, that would crinkle when he was happy. He lived for his music and painting, and never took a break from painting in his latter years, even on Christmas Day, he could be found painting. He lived on the Quigney in East London for a couple of years, before moving to Cambridge and then back to the Quigney, before moving up to Johannesburg.
At the age of 3 he was able to cut out the shape of a horse from the newspaper. That was another of his great loves, horses. He grew up in humble beginnings with his two sisters, Veronica and Joan, and brother Vincent. Their father worked in a dairy and their mother was a housewife.
At 19 years of age, in 1938, he brought together his best friend Terence (nickname Binks) Wellbeloved and formed his own Harmonica band, called "Roy Taylor and his Harmonica Vaudevarians". At 22 years, he joined the Army as a Trooper (in 1941) and went over to Italy and Egypt. He earned the following medals: WWII Star, Italy Star, British Defence Medal, Africa Service Medal and British War Medal. He was discharged in 1946 and was a Spray Polisher in civil life. February 1946 to April 1949 he had his own dance band in East London. From July 1949 to March 1953 he played in Johannesburg in his dance band, until the early hours of the morning. He played at the Curzon theatre in Hillbrow with Nigel Crawford for a while, known as "Roy Taylor and his Quartet". It was during this time that he was married for the first time. Between May 1953 and April 1954 he played the clarinet in Nigel Crawfords band in Johannesburg, when he then was the orchestra leader and clarinet player at the Skyline Hotel. At this time he started to paint seriously as well. For a couple of months in 1955 he played again with Nigel Crawford. From April 1957 to April 1958 he was in the Army band and during the following year he moved to Fish hoek and some of his paintings were exhibited at the newly opened Ithaca Art Gallery. From 1963 he played at the Blue Moon Hotel and Ben Bar Inn at the Bencorrum Hotel in Johannesburg and was known as "Roy Taylor and his band". He remarried in 1964 after a divorce from his first wife and resided in Innes Road, Durban. After his mother's death in 1966, he got divorced yet again and remarried in 1967 to his third and last wife. All through his years of music, his great love of painting was always there. He finally made the decision to paint full time, which led him to become one of the top South African artists of his time. He was well known for his magnificent seascapes throughout South Africa.
He was a man of honesty, integrity and a very loving father. He was born from humble beginnings but made a name for himself in the art world and lived the last 30 years in a house in Westville very comfortably.
