Elmer Bowden Taylor attended Bloomfield High School, New Jersey. After the United States entered World War 1, Taylor travelled to France and enlisted in the Service Aeronautique. He underwent aviation, acrobatic, and gunnery training at Avord, Tours, Pau, and the G.D.E. He earned his brevet on the Caudron on November 2, 1917, and he completed the training pipeline on January 31, 1918. Taylor's first assignment was to Escadrille C.74 and he flew at the Front with that unit until April 1, 1918. He was then assigned to SPA 102 for a mere six days when he received his transfer into U.S. Naval Aviation. On June 12, 1918, Taylor entered the Naval Reserve Flying Corps at the rank of Ensign. He flew at the Front with the 9th Squadron of the Northern Bombing Group. He was hospitalized for bronchial pneumonia at at British Hospital #30 in Calais, and he died there on October 27, 1918.
Taylor was posthumously awarded the U.S. Navy Cross "for distinguished and heroic service as a seaplane pilot in which capacity he made flights for patrolling the sea and bombing the enemy coasts, showing at all times courage and a high spirit of duty." Originally buried in the Les Baracques British Military Cemetery in Calais, France, his remains were reinterred at the Lafayette Flying Corps Memorial located just west of Paris in 1928.
[Source: "The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One," by Dennis Gordon. Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA: 2000.]