Alf Taylor

As a member of the Emmanuel institute AC, Alfred Taylor was beaten in the featherweight final at the Swiss Gymnastic Society Open competition in 1910 by H. Kaiser of the host club. Taylor joined the Olympic Amateur Wrestling Club the following year, and was beaten by the eventual champion Henry Oberholzer in the featherweight semi-final at the annual German Gymnastic Society Championships. In 1912, Taylor lost to Alec Fournier in the final of Northampton Institute Open, but this led to a call-up to the Great Britain squad for the upcoming Olympics.

Although Taylor was predominantly a catch-as-catch-can wrestler (freestyle), all events in Stockholm were in the Greco-Roman style and, despite studying this form of wrestling in advance of the Games to give himself a better chance, Taylor was beaten in his two contests by Swedish opponents.

Taylor enjoyed his greatest successes after his Olympic appearance and just a month after the Stockholm Games was beaten by Percy Cockings in the National Amateur Wrestling Association’s (NAWA) English Championship featherweight final. Before the year was out, however, Taylor had collected probably the biggest prize of his career when he won the German Gymnastic Society title. He settled in Australia in early 1913 where he became a longtime physical culture instructor at the YMCA, Knox College, and Church of England Grammar School in Sydney for several decades. Taylor also represented Australia in wrestling at the 1919 Inter Allied Games in Paris, and also became active in boxing shortly after serving during World War I. He also became involved with the Australian Jockey Club, teaching physical education at the AJC Apprentices’ School and managing the jockeys’ room at several race tracks in the Sydney area. A lifelong bachelor, Taylor retired to Potts Point, New South Wales and died in 1966.