Joseph Needham Tayler

Joseph Needham Tayler (28 October 1783 – 19 March 1864), CB was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Tayler was the youngest son of Samuel Tayler, a wealthy merchant who was five times mayor of Devizes in Wiltshire and captain of the Devizes Loyal Volunteers. Sponsored by Viscount Sidmouth, Joseph Needham Tayler entered the navy as a midshipman at the age of 11 and was given his first commission as lieutenant in April 1802. He soon established a reputation for heroism and served with distinction on several ships before being given his first command in 1811. It was as commander of HMS Sparrow (1805) that his most dramatic adventures were undertaken. His determination to put himself in danger and lead from the front finally spelt the end of his front line naval career when he was seriously injured at the siege of San Sebastian in 1813. As a result of his heroism that day he was advanced to Post-Captain, made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, in 1815 and given the freedom of the Borough of Devizes.

In 1838 he used his considerable experience as a gunner and established a naval gunnery school at Plymouth, where he later captained the guard ship HMS San Josef (1797).

His adventures as captain of HMS Sparrow suggests that Needham Tayler may have been one of the inspirations for C. S. Forester's fictional hero Horatio Hornblower.