Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/11/1914

Date of Discharge

31/01/1917

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

28/12/1895

Place of Birth

Abbotsford, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

John Boyle (father), East Brunswick, Victoria

Final Rank

Captain

Final Unit

14 Battalion AIF

Boyle entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 7 March 1912 and graduated early on 2 November 1914. He was a member of the guard of honour at the naming ceremony at Canberra on 12 March 1913. He landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 but on the night of 18/19 May the Turks launched a major attack on the Anzac positions on Gallipoli. The 14th Battalion occupied the trenches at Courtney's Post and at about 4am they were rushed by the Turks. During the ensuing action a private in the 14th Battalion, Albert Jacka, would earn the first Victoria Cross of the war awarded to an Australian. According to Bean, after the Turks entered the Post, Jacka held them up by crouching in a bay in the trench. Boyle, in a communication trench opposite Jacka, was hit in the neck and ear when attempting to sight the enemy. After treatment in hospital in Egypt, he rejoined the 14th Battalion on 20 June with the rank of Captain even though he was only 19 years of age. During the Battle of Sari Bair in early August 1915, the 4th Brigade (which included the 14th Battalion) was part of an attempt to seize the heights above the Anzac positions on Gallipoli. Boyle received a gun shot wound to his left arm during the fighting which caused a fracture just above the elbow. The injury ended Boyle's active part in the war and he returned home in March 1916. The Queanbeyan Age reported that he had been mentioned in despatches twice, though neither Boyle's service file nor the AWM web site mentions such awards. In World War 2 Boyle served in New Guinea and New Britain. He died on 21 January 1983.

Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, blue eyes, fair complexion, Catholic.

Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. II, p.149)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Collections Record: P02029.019
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
Duntroon Society Newsletter 2/1984
Queanbeyan Age - 17 December 1915