David G. P. Taylor

Who was David G. P. Taylor?

David George Pendleton Taylor CBE was a British businessman and administrator who served as chief executive of the Falklands Islands and Governor of Montserrat.

Taylor was schooled at Clifton College in Bristol where he served as head boy before winning a scholarship to study English at Clare College, Cambridge. He did his National Service in the Royal Navy after which he was posted to RAF China Bay at Trincomalee, in modern day Sri Lanka, as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves.

He joined the Colonial Service in 1958 and was stationed as a District Officer in Tanganyika, which was then part of the British Empire. When Tanganyika gained independence in 1964, Taylor went to British Guiana in South America where he worked for Booker as the head of one of the company's six divisions. In 1976, he went back to Africa where he became chief executive of Booker in Malawi and later Zambia.

In 1983, Taylor went on secondment from Booker to become the first chief executive of the Falkland Islands, a post which had been created on the recommendation of the second report by Lord Shackleton. During his four years in office, Taylor was credited with helping the Falklands become self-sufficient following the Argentine occupation, as well as years of stagnation before then. Taylor left the islands in 1987, but returned the next year to act as interim chief executive for eight months.