Born in
High Wycombe, Stephen was the son of John Taylor, a civil engineer, and his wife Beatrice (Lake) Taylor. Educated at
Stowe School and then at St Thomas Hospital Medical School, London, where he qualified in 1934. When war broke out he joined the
RNVR as a neuropsychiatrist. But in 1941, the government transferred him to the Ministry of Information. He worked on a plan to publish information about health services to the public during wartime. From 1940 to 1944 he was Director of
Home Intelligence and the
Wartime Social Survey in the
Ministry of Information. But by 1944 it appears he was already working for the
Labour Party to achieve an electoral victory at the war's end. Elected as the
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Barnet in July 1945, he was appointed
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Deputy Prime Minister and
Lord President of the Council from 1947. He was an expert policy advisor on the
National Health Service. Taylor also served as a Governor and Vice-Chair of the
British Film Institute while an MP. In 1951 he was invited by the
Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust to carry out a survey of
general practice. He went on to make a significant contribution to the development of general practice, holding a number of positions on medical boards and other organisations, including two stints as a member of
Harlow New Town Development Corporation. In 1955 he was appointed medical director to Harlow health Industrial Health Service for a period of nine years. But it appears was in such demand, that two years later resumed his role into retirement. Taylor was instrumental in the creation of Health Centres in Harlow. His model was rolled out to all major city centres across Britain, developing dental and nursing support within group practices. His survey of 1954 entitled
Good General Practice was based on qualitative interviews at practices already identified as performing well by Joseph Collings report,
General Practice in England : A Reconnaissance, (1950). NHS GP profession was still in its infancy, requiring much pioneering work to improve its services. Taylor sat on the
Central Health Services Council, chaired by
Sir Harry Cohen, the boss of Tesco. Local doctors had traditionally worked alone or in pairs, but the report resulted in group practice becoming the norm in Britain. ==House of Lords==