The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX204475) Sapper Colin Francis Boyd, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (NX204475) Sapper Colin Francis Boyd, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

NX204475 Sapper Colin Francis Boyd, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Accidentally killed 21 May 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 23 January 2015

Today we pay tribute to Sapper Colin Francis Boyd, who was killed in the service of the Royal Australian Engineers in 1945.

Born in Cowra, New South Wales, on 13 February 1924, Colin Francis Boyd was the son of Colin James Boyd and Bridgette Boyd.

Mobilised into the Militia in June 1942, Boyd worked as a mechanic’s assistant at a munitions factory and as a radiator solderer. In September 1944, Boyd volunteered for the Second Australian Imperial Force.

In May 1945, Boyd was posted to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, at the large Australian Army training base at Kapooka. However, in the afternoon of 21 May 1945, tragedy struck.

Crowded into a dug-out during a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges were two groups. One group had 22 trainees and two instructors, the other a smaller squad of three men and one instructor. Inside the dug-out were 110 pounds of explosives stored for the day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown to this day, the explosives ignited: 24 men were killed instantly, two died of injuries shortly afterwards, and two more were severely injured.

Boyd was one of those killed in the accident. He was 21 years old.

A mass funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga on 24 May. Thousands of people lined the route of the funeral parade. The 26 flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks. The cortège included over 100 military vehicles carrying members of the army and air force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

Boyd’s name – along with those of the other 25 killed who were killed in the accident – is listed here on the Roll of Honour on your right, along with the names of around 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sapper Colin Francis Boyd, and all those Australians who gave their lives in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section