Name

Alexander Boyd.

Description

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Certificate relating to Lance Corporal Alexander Boyd.

Life Story

Name: Alexander Boyd.

Service Number: 7784.

Rank: Lance Corporal.

Battalion: 2nd Battalion.

Regiment: Royal Irish Rifles.

Born: Ballyclare, County Antrim.

Died: 27th October 1914.

Address: 63 Lawnbrook Avenue, Belfast

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Volunteer Alexander Boyd, son of William Boyd, lived with his wife at 63 Lawnbrook Avenue, Shankill Road, Belfast

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Alexander had married Jane Boyd, Nee Caldwell, on the 19th May 1913. They went on to have one child, William Alexander Boyd, born 27th March 1905, who sadly died of heart problems just weeks after his birth on the 6th of May 1915. These dates not only show that Alexander had obviously, and sadly, not seen his child, but that his wife Jane had in fact lost both her husband and only child within a 5 month period

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Alexander was a Company Commander in the West Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force.

He had signed the Ulster Covenant on the 28th of September 1912, Ulster Day, within the Old Town Hall, Belfast

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Alexander joined the Royal Irish Rifles.

He was posted as part of the British Expeditionary Force to France on the 27th August 1914.

Alexander was a Lance Corporal in the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles when he was Killed In Action on the 27th of October 1914 at Neuve Chapelle in France.

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A local newspaper states.

Mrs Boyd, 63 Lawnbrook Avenue, Belfast, has been notified that her husband, Rifleman Alexander Boyd, Royal Irish Rilfes, who was reported missing on the 27th October 1914, must have been killed on that date, since nothing has been heard of him since then. Deceased was a reservist and a company commander in the West Belfast Regiment U.V.F

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Alexander Soldiers Effects were left to his widow Jane.

A Dependant Pension Application Form shows Jane as claimant also

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Alexander received the British War Medal, Victory Medal and 1914 Star.

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He is Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France.

To Remember Is To Honour

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