Captain E Lloyd Davies MC - Buckingham Palace
Howard Boyd GRAHAM DSO MC
| Date of birth | 30 August 1891 |
|---|---|
| Place | Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia |
| Parents | John Duncan and Jane (nee Austin) Graham |
| Date of death | 30 August 1965 |
| Place | Eltham, Victoria, Australia |
| Age | 74 |
| Scotch Year(s) | 1905 to 1908 |
Service record and post-war life
Boyd Graham graduated as a medical practitioner in 1915. Records of his service are sparse. He enlisted in the British Royal Army Medical Corps on 12 May 1915, becoming a Temporary Lieutenant. A year later, on 12 May, he became a Temporary Captain, and in January 1918 an Acting Major. For most of the war he served with the 64th Field Ambulance, part of the 21st Division. He was temporarily a Regimental Medical Officer, but also Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services (DADMS) of both his division and corps. He was presumably with them in the battle of the Somme in 1916. He was gassed on 4 October 1917 and wounded on 23 October 1918.
Boyd was Mentioned in Despatches on 21 December 1917 and 25 May 1918. He won a Distinguished Service Order on 18 January 1918 and a Military Cross on 26 July 1918. The citation for the latter said that while in charge of 300 stretcher-bearers, he had safely evacuated wounded under heavy shell and machine-gun fire (see citation below). On one occasion his dressing station had been heavily shelled, leading to high casualties, but he had rallied the bearers and led them and 54 casualties to safety. He was demobilised on 25 July 1919.
Boyd was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II.
Boyd became resident at Melbourne Hospital, and for about 18 months before 1923 was resident medical officer and assistant pathologist at Children’s Hospital, where, in 1923, he became its inaugural medical superintendent. As a passionate book collector Boyd was vice-president of the Australian Book Collectors’ Society.
Boyd died at Eltham in 1965. He had married Adele Norma Metzner (d. 1984) in 1925, and their son, Nigel Graham and grandson attended Scotch.
Photographs and Documents:
Citation for Howard Graham’s Military Cross, from Supplement to London Gazette, 26 July 1918
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial – Honours and Awards
- ‘Graham H B Capt’, Empire Call website, http://empirecall.pbworks.com/w/page/49860443/Graham%20H%20B%20%20Capt
- Mishura Scotch Database
- National Archives of Australia – B2455,
- Scotch Collegian
- Supplement to London Gazette, 26 July 1918, p. 8803. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30813/supplement/8803/data.pdf
