Soldier Record

This part of the wall commemorates Lance Corporal William Craig Boyd, a local hero who fought in what was at the time called ‘the war to end all wars.’ William Craig Boyd was born in 1889 and grew up in Milngavie. In 1910, at the age of twenty-one, he enlisted in the 5th Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), after a period in the 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers. He was posted in various camps in Scotland, England and Ireland throughout the war, before being sent to the Somme in January 1917. After a period of illness, spent in Britain, Boyd returned to France in June 1917, where he fought in the 3rd Battle of Ypres.

On 25th of March 1918 Boyd was captured in Nesle and taken to a German Prisoner of War (POW) Camp, where he remained for 8 months. He regularly wrote home to his mother and father, and to his brother, who was also on active service. William was often commended for keeping up the spirits of his fellow soldiers amidst the horrors of the trenches, and the German POW camps. On 11th November 1918 peace was declared and Boyd was released from the Camp. Boyd was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal for his services in the Great War.