Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

James Boyd #3039 41st /43rd Battalion

James Boyd lived with his parents, James Snr and Mary, at “Thorntonhall’, Ellis Street, Coorparoo. His Roll of Honour card, completed by his mother, reports that he attended Brisbane Normal School and was employed as a clerk. The admission register for Coorparoo State School shows James enrolling there in 1894. At the time of enlistment he was single and aged 28.

James enlisted in Brisbane on 25th October, 1916 and was drafted into the 41st Battalion. The 41st was part of the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Division AIF. Unlike the other 4 divisions which were on the Western Front in 1916/17, the 3rd Division, with Monash as Divisional Commander would spend considerable time training in England before being deployed to France. It is therefore not surprising that James Boyd arrived in England in April 1917 but was not sent to France until March 1918. During his time in England, he trained as a signaller. Just two months after arriving in France, James was seconded to Brigade HQ for three months. By this time, James has been transferred to the 43rd Battalion.

Between March and August 1918, Operation Michael had seen the Germans advance west from the Hindenburg Line to the within striking distance of Amiens on the Somme. The advance was halted just outside Villers Bretonneux (on ANZAC Day 1918) and with the Australian Divisions in the vanguard, the British and Dominion Forces began to push back. By early August, the Germans had suffered their “Blackest Day” according to Ludendorff and large numbers of enemy troops were surrendering every day. General Haig commented:

“Risks which a month ago would have been criminal ought now to be incurred as a matter of duty.” Haig knew he had the Germans on the ropes.

As Monash’s forces advanced east along the Somme in late August 1918, the 3rd Division was given the task of securing the northern bank of the river near the town of Bray. James Boyd had been sent back to the 43rd Battalion from Brigade HQ on 19 August. On 22 August, he was reported Killed in Action aged 30. His mates buried him near Bray and erected a wooden cross and a larger cross made up of artillery shells on his grave. A photograph of the grave is held in the Australian War Memorial Collection and is probably a copy of a photo sent to his mother. Sadly by the time that the Imperial War Graves Commission was consolidating the graves on the Western Front, the grave of James Boyd was lost. He is now commemorated along with 11,000 other Australian on the memorial tablets at the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux.

James Boyd, from the account in the records, was an unlikely infantryman. His skills lay in clerical work and signalling at which it would appear he was quite proficient. The desperate need for manpower in the frontline in August 1918 was probably the reason he was sent back to his unit. The action in which he fell was by battalion standards a small affair. The battalion diary lists only 11 killed on that day. It was probably James’ lack of frontline experience that contributed to his demise.