Cyril Taylor (educationist)

They married in Mwanza on 17 October 1923 and had their first child, a son, on 25 July 1925.

His parents, the Reverend Cyril Eustace Taylor and Marjorie Victoria Hebden Taylor, were Methodist missionaries in the Belgian Congo who helped establish 38 churches with a collective membership of more than 3,000 people by 1925.

Sir Cyril Julian Hebden Taylor (14 May 1935 – 29 January 2018) was a British educator and social entrepreneur, who founded the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS) in 1964.

The youngest of six children, Cyril Julian Hebden Taylor was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England on 14 May 1935.

The Reverend died from pneumonia in Switzerland four months before Taylor's birth in 1935, leaving Marjorie to raise him, his brother and his four sisters.

Taylor was six months old when his mother returned to the Belgian Congo.

He joined her and spent his formative years there, learning the local Katangese language of Kiluba but no English.

As a result of the Second World War, they returned to Leeds when Taylor was six, which is when he learned to speak English.

In 1942, Taylor and his family lived together in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and then in Halifax, Yorkshire, from 1944.

Taylor passed his eleven-plus examination and attended Heath Grammar School for one academic term, before moving back to Leeds and attending Roundhay Grammar School until 1947 when he moved to London.

In London, Taylor attended St Marylebone Grammar School, where he stayed until 1954.

Taylor was called up for his two years National Service in 1954 where he applied for a commission and was trained as an officer.

Taylor was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and was granted a secondment to the King's African Rifles in Kenya during the Mau Mau emergency.

He spent eighteen months as the Commander of Number 8 Platoon, C Company, in the 3rd Battalion of the King’s African Rifles.

Taylor left the army in March 1956, just prior to going up to Cambridge University and took a teaching job for a term at a private boarding school.

In October 1956, Taylor took his place at Trinity Hall, Cambridge to read History.

During his time at Cambridge, Taylor became good friends with reporter Mark Tully and Parviz C. Radji.

Taylor's personal tutor was The Reverend Robert Runcie, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and who encouraged and supported Taylor's application to Harvard Business School and who would later recommend Taylor to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

In 1957 Taylor assisted a friend at Cambridge, Miles Halford, who had chartered

two DC6 aeroplanes to fly fellow students who wanted to work their summer university break in North America and Canada.

After working the summer of 1957 in Temiscaming, Quebec where his brother Stacey was the Anglican vicar Taylor ended his trip with a visit to Harvard Business School which influenced his decision to apply to study at Harvard and join the Harvard MBA programme.

After graduating from Cambridge with a second-class honours degree, he was accepted onto the MBA programme by Harvard Business School in September 1959, majoring in Entrepreneurial studies in his final year.

After graduation, Taylor was offered a job by Procter & Gamble in the Marketing Department where he worked from 1961 to 1964.

Whilst working at Procter & Gamble, Taylor met and later married, French language teacher, Judy Denman.

It was when Taylor helped Denman to organise an educational trip for her pupils to France, to learn French, that he came up with the idea of the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS).

Taylor saw there was an untapped market for school trips abroad led by teachers and so spent his two-week Procter & Gamble vacation in August 1964 setting up summer study abroad programmes for high school students at universities in European cities.

This led to Taylor leaving Procter & Gamble in September 1964 to focus on this new enterprise and together with Roger Walther and Doug Burck, two other Brand Managers from Procter & Gamble, the AIFS was established.

Taylor founded the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS) in 1964.

Taylor founded Richmond University the American International University in London in 1971.

The University is accredited in the United States and designated by the Department of Education of HM Government in the UK.

Taylor was Chancellor of the university which has 1,200 students from 100 countries.

Taylor was appointed a director of Margaret Thatcher’s Think Tank, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and began his political career on the Greater London Council (GLC) as the member for Ruislip-Northwood.

Following the abolition of the GLC in 1986, Taylor was called upon by Thatcher, Prime Minister, to assist with the emerging problem of rising youth unemployment.

He served as an education reformer and special adviser to successive elected British Governments from 1987 to 2007 and founded the City Technology Colleges Trust, subsequently the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT).

Between 1987 until 2007, Taylor served as Education Adviser to ten successive Secretaries of State for Education on the Specialist Schools and Academies initiatives.

Taylor was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1989 Birthday Honours for services to education in recognition of the success of the CTC initiative.

In 1996, Taylor, was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as High Sheriff of Greater London.

He was also made a Knight Grand Cross of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) for services to education in 2004.

In 2006, Taylor described Thomas Kingston Derry, his teacher at St Marylebone, as "probably the greatest influence on my life".

It was during this time that Taylor founded the City Technology Colleges Trust (CTCT), subsequently renamed the Specialist Schools Trust, and renamed again as the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) where he remained Chairman until 2007.