Obituary - Victor William ‘Bill’ Taylor LLM, FRICS
12 April 1929 - 16 June 2009
Bill Taylor was a stalwart member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for some 22 years. During this time he became widely known both as a lecturer and public speaker and as a loyal committee member.
His career spanned the spectrum of public and private practice from London County Council, as a senior lecturer at the College of Estate Management, Legal and General Assurance where he worked as investment advisor, private practice as partner in W H Lane and Sons, Penzance and Head of Department at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University.
He was a well known and respected public speaker as well as his prestigious teaching achievements he spoke at dozens of professional development meetings throughout the country on landlord and tenant legislation and professional negligence being one of the first to make practical sense of emerging case law in a way that was of real help to practicing surveyors.
He was appointed to the panel of Arbitrators and also provided expert witness testimony in Court and at arbitration on many occasions
His history of service for the RICS seems to be lost in the records but he was both a branch committee member and sat on standing committees and working groups at Great George Street for many years.
He will be fondly remembered by those he taught and lectured, for his humour and for making complex subjects accessible.
Bill finally retired from the lecturing circuit in his seventies and sadly suffered, towards the end of his life, from dementia, a cruel condition for a man who made his professional life out of words.
He is missed also as a husband, father and grandfather, friend, neighbour and gentleman.
I particularly remember receiving my appointment to the profession from the then Chairman of the RICS who, it seemed inevitably, was one of my father’s ex-students.
Dedicated to Bill from his loving son.
Charlie Taylor MRICS