LEWIS 'Roy' Taylor is being remembered as a man who transcended news coverage in Ballarat and as a true English gentleman.
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Growing up in London, Mr Taylor started his news career with 20th Century Fox in London, before migrating to Australia onboard the "Strathaird" from Tilbury which arrived in Brisbane.
He was the quintessential "£10 Pom", spending his first year with scouting friends in Brisbane. He married his sweetheart Pamella in February 1961 and they moved to Ballarat in 1962.
Mr Taylor was appointed the News Director of BTV6 and was part of the team who established the original news room and put together the first "on air" news service.
He had a chance to move to a TV station in Sydney, but decided that the facilities offered to a young family in Ballarat out-weighed a move interstate.
It would allow him to contribute as a member and later president of Black Hill School Council.
Away from his passions with work and his family, Mr Taylor was also a long time member of the Freemasons and was the first non-metropolitan Freemason given the position of Grand Lecturer.
He was also a lifelong scout, which he first joined in April 1946.
He was also a Life Governor of the Queen Elizabeth Geriatric Centre, President of the Gold Museum Society and Committee Member of Ballarat Goldfields Probus Club, APEX, Sovereign Hill Museums Association and member of the Art Gallery Association.
Among his personal achievements was a 1984 award from the Polish Government in Exile which he received for promoting the Polish community through news coverage on television.
Through his television work, he met and interviewed many well known people, highlighted by the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles on his Australian tour in 1983, two former Prime Ministers - Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser and musicians including John Farnham, Judith Durham (The Seekers) and Richard Clapton.
A little known fact was Mr Taylor's love of trains, a hobby he had enjoyed since the weekends as a child where he would sit at the end of Paddington or Waterloo stations collecting train numbers.
This would culminate in a number of train trips, including in 2004 when he and Pamella travelled on the Orient Express from London to Venice.
Mr Taylor passed away surrounded by his family on February 10 after a two year battle with prostate cancer.
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