3689 Private Allan James Boyd – Bairnsdale Killed in Action 19 July 1916

….. we went over at the same time, but I did not see him again

Bairnsdale born and bred Allan James Boyd was a 19 year old clerk with three years’ experience with the cadets when he signed up for service on 15 July 1915 with the 12th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion. He was a member of both the football and rowing clubs and was a favourite with all who knew him. He was in Egypt in early 1916 before being transferred to Marseilles. Just twenty days later Allan Boyd was reported missing. A court of enquiry on 29 August 1917 heard that he was last seen just before our battalion charged in the trenches. We went over at the same time, but I did not see him again. The court determined that he was killed in action on the 19 July 1916 and that his body was presumed buried in no man’s land approximately at 5J0.43 to 5K0.2.51 sheet Hazelanick 5A. In 1920 the family were advised that his body that been re-interred at Auber’s Ridge British Cemetery, south west of Armentieres. Two of his cousins also died, one at Gallipoli and one in France. Allan Boyd had just turned twenty when he died in what would be the worst 24 hours of battle – the Battle of Fromelles.