Boyd, Percy

BORN HULL 1895. HULL PAL. SON OF THOMAS & CLAYGNA MARGARET BOYD ABOVE 1901. LEFT BILLY, PHIL, GERRY, GEORGE, MARK & LAURA.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE PERCY BOYD 10/655. Born in July 1894, Percy was the youngest of six children to Thomas and Claygna Boyd of 284 St. George’s Road, Hull. The family business was trading in fish and ice, and Percy’s elder brother Tom took over the mantle when their father died in 1906. When war came Percy was among the first to enlist in the fledgling 10th Battalion, queuing in those long, uneven lines of September 1914 for a part in the big adventure. One of the Original Pals, he trained thoughout 1915 and shipped to Egypt to defend Suez from the Turks that December. Arriving in France on 6th March 1916, he was a veteran of all the major campaigns from the Somme and Oppy Wood through to the Spring Offensive of March/April 1918. Wounded in the hand and face in August 1918 he returned to the lines, surviving the debacle at Ploegsteert Wood only to be killed in action on October 25th, a mere 17 days from the war’s end. He was buried on the battlefield and exhumed after the Armistice when his remains were interred at Harlebeke New British Cemetery. It seems that his death was all too much for his mother, she died in 1919 before she knew of her youngest son’s final resting place.