William Taylor (civil servant)

Sir William Ling Taylor, CBE (29 May 1882 – 5 January 1969) was a British civil servant and forester.

Born on 29 May 1882,^[1] Taylor was educated at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, receiving a diploma in forestry. He worked as a land agent from 1901 to 1909, then began working for the state.^[2]

Taylor entered the Forestry Commission in 1919 and served as the assistant commissioner for England and Wales from 1932 to 1938, when he was appointed a forestry commissioner.^[1] He was the inaugural Deputy Director-General of the Forestry Commission, serving from 1945 to 1947 (being succeeded by Arthur Gosling),^[3][4] and was then Director-General from 1947 to 1948, in succession to Sir Roy Robinson;^[4][5] on his retirement, he was succeeded as Director-General by Gosling.^[6] He remained on the commission in 1949.^[5] He had also been in the Home Timber Production Department of the wartime Ministry of Supply from 1939 to 1941.^[5]

Taylor, who had been president of the Society of Foresters of Great Britain from 1936 to 1938,^[2] was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1945 New Year Honours,^[7] and was knighted in the 1949 New Year Honours.^[8] He died on 5 January 1969.^[2]