Johnny Taylor was born in Toronto on July 4, 1916. He was the youngest of four children, and younger than his next oldest sibling by thirteen years. His Torontonian father, also called John (b. 1872), was an engineer on a steamship and his mother Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Rawson was born in Falkenburg, north of Bracebridge, Ontario the same year. Her father was a farmer. The couple married in Bracebridge in 1895. When Johnny was born, the family was living in Toronto at 86 Hamilton Street, near Broadview and Dundas but by the time John was of school age, they had moved to 41 Dingwall Avenue. All of Johnny's siblings had married and moved out by 1922. Johnny and his parents lived on Dingwall until 1927, so even though Johnny claimed to have only attended Norway on his enlistment papers, he probably attended Pape Avenue School until about Grade 4.

 

The Taylors had moved to 353 Waverley Road, a few doors south of Kingston Road and Johnny entered Norway, graduating in 1932. He attended high school at Danforth Tech and after graduating in 1935, he took a Commercial course at Eastern Commerce for a year. He played hockey, football and basketball. Johnny was an excellent swimmer, competing on championship teams and he worked as a lifeguard during the summers. He also played golf and skied. He and his family were members of St. John's Norway church.

 

His first job after graduation was as a bookkeeper. He stuck with that for a year and then became a customs truck driver, a beer salesman, a grommet maker at Canada Wire and Cable and finally a machinist at Northern Machine and Tool Company, where he was working when he first signed up in the air force on February 20, 1940. Johnny was always interested in aviation and had flown numerous times as a passenger, but he had to wait almost a year until he was eligible to enlist. During this time Johnny's father passed away on July 13, 1940 and Johnny continued to live with his mother on Waverley.

 

He enlisted in the RCAF on February 22, 1941. He was sent to Trenton and then Victoriaville, Quebec to train. By July, it was determined that he was good pilot material and began flight lessons. Although he was hard working, Johnny found he was afraid of the Harvard plane he had to train on and by November, he requested to discontinue pilot training. His superiors were in agreement that he was unsuitable as a service pilot. He was sent back to Toronto so his future career in the RCAF could be determined. In December he was sent to Rockcliffe air base near Ottawa, and apparently resumed his pilot's training because by May 22, 1942 he had won his wings.

 

The next day he was in Toronto, getting married to Reta Blanche Sharland. She was a Beach girl, whose father had been the superintendent of old Woodbine racetrack. They had a two week honeymoon and then Johnny went to Montreal for further training. It's unknown whether Reta followed him there. He moved to Alberta where he remained until April 6, 1944. His instructors felt that he had become a hard worker and his initial troubles had been overcome. He had two weeks' embarkation leave prior to shipping out of Halifax on April 29. If Reta had been living with him, she moved back into her mother's house on Bellefair Avenue.

 

Once in Britain, he soon got word that his mother had died on May 28. He was sent to advanced pilot training in June and was destined to be a fighter pilot. During his training he was stationed at RAF Cranwell, also the location of the Royal Air Force College. By September he was sent to an operational training unit in Wales to fly on the airplane he would use in battle. It was the Spitfire, the famed World War 2 fighter. He joined RCAF 412 Squadron on January 1, 1945. By this point in the war, the Allies were well established on the continent and the 412 was at a Dutch airfield in Heesch. Their flying assignments included providing protection to bomber aircraft and destroying German infrastructure like railroads.