Name
Stuart/Stewart Augustine Boyd
1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/05/1917
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2225
Australian Machine Gun Corps
5th Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Broxbourne memorials *1
Pre War
Stuart/Stewart Augustine BOYD was born in Broxbourne,
Hertfordshire, in 1883, son of Alexander Gaulle Boyd a Manchester Warehouseman
and Charlotte Christian Boyd (nee Faraker). One of twelve children although two
died in childhood.
1891 Census records Stuart aged 7, living with his parents,
six brothers, sisters Gertrude (5) and Helen (2), at “The Lawns” High Road,
Broxbourne, Herts, his father is recorded as a retired Manchester Warehouseman
living on his own means. The family had six Domestic Servants.
1901 Census records Stuart aged 17, at Boarding School in
Norwich, Norfolk.
1911 Census records Stuart aged 27, as single and a boarder
with widow Mary Woods and her family at 9 Shakespeare Terrace, Sunderland, Co
Duram. His occupation is given as an Electrical Tester. His parents, brothers Stanley (29), Angus (14), sisters Helen
(22) and Ethal (16) are now living at “Stronsay” Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft,
Suffolk. Stuart would later emigrate to Australia.
Wartime Service
His Australia service record has him as Stewart and Stuart.
He enlisted on 5th July 1915, at Liverpool, New South Wales,
Australia, posted to the 5th Machine Company and issued with the
service number 2225.
He embarked at Sydney, aboard HMAT “Argyllshire”, on 30th
August 1915, for Egypt for training. He sailed from Alexandria on 18th
March 1916 for Marseilles, France, arriving on 25th March 1916. He
was wounded in action in August 1916 and admitted to hospital on his recovery
he returned to the front. He was Killed in Action on 5th May 1917,
he has no known grave, he remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in
France. (The Villers-Bretonneux Memorial is the Australian National Memorial
erected to commemorate all Australians soldiers who fought in WW 1).
Additional Information
Brother Lance Corporal 659 Kenneth Seymour Boyd of the
Honourable Artillery Company was Killed in Action on 30th June 1915.
Brother Driver 22644 Douglas Graham Boyd of the RFC/RAF
survived the war.
Stewart's service record is available on-line at the
Australian National Archives.
*1 Both Stuart and his brother Kenneth are also commemorated on
their siblings’ headstone in Broxbourne (St. Augustine) Churchyard. Their part
of inscription reads:
“. . . IN EVER LOVING MEMORY OF THE TWO SOLDIER SONS OF THE ABOVE
(Alexander & Charlotte Boyd) CALLED TO HIGHER SERVICE FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS
OF FRANCE. KENNETH SEYMOUR BOYD ON JUNE 30TH 1915, AGED 24. STUART AUGUSTINE
BOYD ON MAY 5TH 1917, AGED 33. PSALM. XXI. 4.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
