Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

04/08/1915

Date of Discharge

02/06/1919

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

13/12/1895

Place of Birth

Ginninderra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

'Rose Grove', Boro NSW (previously 'Homebush' via Hall ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Thomas Tinsley Boyd (father), 'Rose Grove', Boro NSW

Service Number

2559

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

56 Battalion AIF

Boyd's grandmother was a Southwell from the Hall district and he was born at 'Homebush', a property just to the north of Hall. The Boyd family moved to Back Creek near Gundaroo in about 1898 and later to a property near Boro to the south of Tarago. Charles Boyd embarked from Sydney in November 1915 as a reinforcement for the 20th Battalion but injured his arm in Egypt and was transferred to the newly created 56th Battalion when he recovered. Boyd arrived in France at the end of June 1916 and was probably with the 56th Battalion at the Battle of Fromelles on 19-20 July 1916. By the end of 1916 the 56th Battalion were on the Somme at Flers where Boyd developed trench feet and was evacuated to hospital in England.

He rejoined his unit in France at the end of August 1917 but received a gun shot wound to the neck at the Battle of Polygon Wood in Belgium in September 1917. Again he was evacuated to England for treatment before rejoining the 56th Battalion in early 1918. His unit was stationed in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme in France when Boyd was gassed and he was sent to hospital in England for the third time for treatment.

Boyd returned to Australia in April 1919 and was discharged two months later. He married Rosalind Milne in Goulburn in 1920 and they lived near Coolamon for several years before moving to Sydney where he died on 24 October 1961. He was a cousin of Jack Butt of Majura who also served in World War 1.

Description - height 5 feet 11 inches, weight 153 pounds, chest 35 inches, dark complexion, grey eyes, dark brown hair, Methodist.

AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Lyall Gillespie, 'The Southwell Family, pioneers of the Canberra district', 1988
Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001 (p.23)
Queanbeyan Methodist Church baptisms (Canberra & District Historical Society)
Monaro Pioneers Index WW1 - www.monaropioneers.com/1st_aif_participants.htm
Goulburn Evening Penny Post - 24 July 1915
Goulburn Evening Post - 2 November 1961
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)