Thomas Boyd KIA

T G Boyd KOSB Full name Thomas Gosnell Boyd.
KIA at Theydon Bois, near Epping along with 29 other soldiers from A Company 6th Battalion the KOSB 18th Nov 1940. Tom was only 23 years old.
TRAGEDY AT THEYDON BOIS
On Monday 18th November 1940 sixty men of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers were billeted at Yates Retreat, a huge pre-war tea room and playground in Coppice Row, Theydon Bois. A sentry on duty outside saw an object descending by parachute. He had heard an aircraft circling earlier, and assumed that it must be an airman who had been forced to bale out. The object was in fact a mine, one of two dropped. One landed in Piercing Hill, but the other brushed the roof of the Retreat before hitting the helter-skelter and exploding. The Retreat was completely blown apart, and twenty-six soldiers were killed. Over the next few days two more died of their wounds. All the deaths were recorded at Epping Registry Office.
There is a memorial to those killed in St Mary’s Church Theydon Bois.