My father, Archie Taylor, who has died aged 90, was an adventurous man with a passion for sailing that was fostered by reading Arthur Ransome books as a boy. He was also a talented saxophonist, composer and arranger.
He was born in Bournemouth into a musical family. His father, Archie, was a tenor saxophonist, and his mother, Maud (nee Long), had played the concertina in the music halls with her sister, Dolly.
In 1936 Archie Sr joined the Tom Katz Saxophone Six, a well-respected musical comedy act. At the age of 14 my father joined too on alto sax, and toured until 1944, when he was posted to North Africa to entertain the troops during the second world war. He and a couple of friends were given regular gigs in Cairo. They would travel about on the floor of a taxi, hidden under blankets for safety.
After demob, he landed a job playing in a dance band in Manchester, where he met Alma Varnom, a mill worker. Shortly after he landed a summer season in the Isle of Man and lodged with the bandleader Hughie Gibb, whose sons Robin, Barry and Maurice were to become the Bee Gees.
Archie and Alma married in 1951 and moved to Manchester, where he and Archie Sr played in various dance bands, often joined by Alma on vocals.
With the advent of television, the band business took a downturn so my father studied photography at the College of Science and Technology in Manchester, winning the City and Guilds medal for that year. His work on photo chromatography was on display in the Atomium exhibition centre in Brussels when it opened for the World’s Fair in 1958.
He became a photographer for Thompson Press, and later went freelance, specialising in industrial photography. He also lectured in photography for many years, mainly at further education colleges and occasionally at Umist, now part of the University of Manchester.
Archie and Alma retired in 1988 to Cardigan in west Wales, where they enjoyed many happy years sailing and caravanning until Alma had a stroke. Her death, shortly after, spurred Archie on to try new things. He wrote poetry, a novel, a flute concerto and numerous jazz compositions. In 2009 he recorded an album of his arrangements of his original music and continued to gig when he could. Last year at his 90th birthday party he played all night long and was in sparkling form.
He is survived by his children, Julia and me, grandchildren Jaimie, Nathan, Ferne and Lucy, and great-granddaughter, Olivia.
