Neilson Taylor

Jeffrey Neilson Taylor (20 September 1930 – 28 December 2010) was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Fulham and Brentford as a forward. He went on to perform opera.

Football career In an eight-year career as a professional footballer, Taylor played in the First Division, Second Division and Third Division South of the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Fulham and Brentford respectively. Taylor scored in double-figures in his first two seasons with Huddersfield Town. He moved to Fulham in November 1951 and scored a hat-trick in one of his early appearances against Middlesbrough, before his music studies began to take precedence and he dropped out of the first team picture. Taylor moved on in 1962 to understudy Michel Roux in Pelléas et Mélisande and Walter Alberti and John Shirley-Quirk in L'incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne.

Taylor failed fully to deliver on his promise as a performer, but found fulfilment when he was made Professor of Singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow and he remained in the role for 18 years.

13 4 0 0 13 4 1955–56 43 15 2 1 45 16 1956–57 38 15 2 2 40 17

94 34 4 3 98 37

203 73 7 5 210 78