Sydney man slain in Mumbai remembered

AAP- Just hours after phoning the family he adored and sharing dinner with other business people on a trade mission to Mumbai, Sydney timber merchant Brett Taylor was dead.

The married father-of-two was pronounced dead on arrival at the St George Hospital
in South Mumbai on Wednesday after being shot when terrorists attacked the
Oberoi/Trident hotel.
One of the two luxury hotels targeted by armed Islamist militants, the Oberoi was a
base for a NSW trade delegation that had arrived in India's financial capital on
Sunday.
Mr Taylor, a fourth generation timber merchant, was proudly spruiking his St
Marys-based company, Blacktown Timber, a firm he ran with his two brothers.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is still trying to piece together
the exact circumstances of the businessman's death.
His distraught nephew Matt Taylor said the family had no contact with him during the
attacks.
But conversations with delegates had revealed he dined with them before returning to
his hotel.
"We'd spoken to him before the attacks happened and once we'd heard news of what was
going on we had no contact with him whatsoever," Matt Taylor told ABC Radio.
"We'd spoken to a number of the other members of the party that he was travelling
with and they'd confirmed they'd been out to dinner with him and returned from
dinner to the hotel and that was the last they'd seen of him."
NSW State Development Minister Ian Macdonald described Mr Taylor's death as a
cowardly attack on a hard-working and widely respected businessman.
"Brett was simply doing his job and was an innocent victim of a cowardly attack," he
said in a statement.
"My department is offering his family every assistance during this difficult time."
Indian officials say four Australians were killed in the Mumbai attacks, and the
Australian government warned the nation to "expect the worst".
So far two Australians have been confirmed dead, Mr Taylor and Sydney man Doug
Markell, 71, a former deputy mayor of Woollahra.
Mr Taylor's family, including wife Paula, and teenage daughters Sally, 19, and
Nicola, 16, are grieving their loss.
The business would be dedicated to his memory, Matt Taylor said.
"He did live for his family and it's a very tragic time for everybody involved, and
we plan on continuing his memory and continuing to further the business in his
memory," he said.
Craig Digby, who went to Sydney's Trinity Grammar School with Mr Taylor, said his
friend was a real "Australian bloke that is going to be sadly missed by everyone".
"He was a real good mate, a real larrikin," Mr Digby said.
"We've got a big brotherhood (at Trinity Grammar), a mateship, and it's continued on
from there."
Mr Digby said he had been in touch with the school, and hoped to organise a memorial
fund for the Taylor family.
"There is going to be a big turnout, a big send-off for him," he said.