Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, (30 August 1889 – 5 August 1944) was a British aviator and military officer. He served with the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

before transferring to the newly formed

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

in 1918, with which he served during the interwar period and into the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Education and pre-war

Born in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

, Boyd was educated at the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

. On 20 January 1909, he was commissioned on the 'unattached list for the Indian Army' and attached to a British Army regiment in India before being appointed to the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

in March 1910. Boyd was posted to the Indian Army's 5th Cavalry. He was promoted Lieutenant on 20 April 1911.

First World War

He was promoted temporary Captain, Indian Army, to date from the 1 September 1915 in the London Gazette of 28 July 1916. From 25 April 1916, Boyd saw service in the First World War as a flying officer with the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

. Later in 1916, he was a pilot on the Western Front with No. 27 Squadron; on 9 July, he was promoted to flight commander. He was awarded the Military Cross in the London Gazette of 18 August 1916. Boyd stayed on the Western Front and continued to earn promotion. On 26 October, he was made

officer commanding The officer commanding (OC), also known as the officer in command or officer in charge (OiC), is the commander of a sub-unit or minor unit (smaller than battalion size), principally used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. In other countries, ...

of a squadron and on 19 January 1917, took command of No. 66 Squadron. In June 1917, he was moved to a staff appointment and on 2 December, he was made a staff officer, 2nd Class, RFC (captain – graded as

brigade major A brigade major was the chief of staff of a brigade in the British Army. They most commonly held the rank of major, although the appointment was also held by captains, and was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section direct ...

). By 7 July 1918, Boyd was in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

as officer commanding No. 72 Squadron.

Interwar years

From 18 January 1919, Boyd was an officer commanding and a staff officer (acting lieutenant colonel). On 1 August, he was awarded a permanent commission as a major. By 21 January 1920, he was a staff officer with the Mesopotamian Wing Headquarters. He was also involved as a staff officer with the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence. On 23 October 1922, Boyd was once again commanding a squadron, this time No. 24 Squadron. On 26 February 1923, he was made the Commandant of the School of Army Co-operation. Starting 21 January 1926, he attended the

Army Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For exa ...

Camberley Camberley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately south-west of Central London. The town is in the far west of the county, close to the borders of Hampshire and Berkshire. Once part of Windsor Forest, Cambe ...

. By 21 January 1928, he was on the directing staff of the college. On 4 January 1930, Boyd became the deputy director of staff duties. On 7 August 1931, Boyd was the officer commanding, RAF Aden. By 16 April 1934, he was

Secretary of State for Air The Secretary of State for Air was a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state position in the British government, which existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretar ...

for the Headquarters Fighting Area. By 24 October 1935, he was air officer commanding, Central Area. On 1 May 1936, Boyd was promoted to air commodore of

No. 1 Group RAF No. 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two operations groups in RAF Air Command. Today, the group is referred to as the Air Combat Group, as it controls the RAF's combat fast-jet aircraft and has airfields in the UK, as well as RAF Sup ...

. He was appointed director of personal services at the Air Ministry in December 1936.

Second World War

In 1938, as an

air vice marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

, Boyd became commander-in-chief

RAF Balloon Command Balloon Command was the Royal Air Force command which was responsible for controlling all the United Kingdom-based barrage balloon units during the Second World War. History Prior to the establishment of Balloon Command, a balloon group was b ...

. On 1 December 1940, he was replaced by Air Marshal Sir

Leslie Gossage Air Marshal Sir Ernest Leslie Gossage, (3 February 1891 – 8 July 1949) was an officer of the British Army and then of the Royal Air Force. He served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Balloon Command from 1940 to 1944. Early life Gos ...

. Boyd was then promoted to air marshal and appointed deputy to the

air officer An air officer is an air force officer of the rank of air commodore or higher. Such officers may be termed "officers of air rank". While the term originated in the Royal Air Force, air officers are also to be found in many Commonwealth nations ...

commanding-in-chief (AOC-in-C)

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. On his way to Egypt, Boyd was to stop in Malta. However, the aircraft in which he and his staff were passengers was forced down over enemy-controlled

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

by a group of Italian fighter aircraft. There is some controversy over his capture as Boyd was indoctrinated into "

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

" intelligence and the advantage gained from breaking some German codes, which led to fears he could reveal this secret. Secondly one history book refers to "the reported circumstance is a navigation error and consequent fuel shortage". After destroying his confidential papers by setting his own aircraft on fire, Boyd became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

(POW). He spent much of the war in the Castle Vincigliata (''Castello di Vincigliata'') camp near

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Italy. When Italy capitulated in September 1943, Boyd and two British Army generals (

Philip Neame Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, (12 December 1888 – 28 April 1978) was a senior British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Common ...

and

Richard O'Connor General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor, (21 August 1889 – 17 June 1981) was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars, and commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of the Second World War. He ...

, both captured in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

in 1941), with help from the

Italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

, escaped while being transferred from Vincigliata. After spending time in the Italian countryside and a failed rendezvous with a

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

, they arrived by boat at

Termoli Termoli (Neapolitan language, Molisano: ''Térmëlë'') is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south Adriatic coast of Italy, in the province of Campobasso, region of Molise. It has a population of around 32,000, having expanded quickly af ...

, then went on to

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

where they were welcomed as guests by

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied Armies fighting on the Italian Front, on 21 December 1943. Their escape was led by a Lieutenant Colonel Pat Spooner, who had escaped once before and returned to German-controlled Italy. Of all of

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

's wartime group commanders, Boyd spent the shortest time in command of his appointed group. In late July 1944, he was divorced. Little more than a week later, on 5 August, he was dead from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

References

External links

Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Marshal O T Boyd
* * , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Owen 1889 births 1944 deaths British Army personnel of World War I British escapees Companions of the Order of the Bath Escapees from Italian detention Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Military personnel from London Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Air Force air marshals of World War II Royal Flying Corps officers Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst World War II prisoners of war held by Italy Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley British Indian Army officers People from Marylebone British people in colonial India