BURIAL AT WALTON

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 23 May 1932, Page 2

BURIAL AT WALTON

AN2AC SOLDIER’S DEATH. AFTER FOURTEEN YEARS. Nearly fourteen years after the close o fthe Great War, the remains of a private of the Auckland Inf ran try, John Lewis Boyd, joined those of his comrades in the Anzac grave in AValton cemetery (England) on an afternoon in March.

I Private Boyd died at the age of W years in London, the previous Sunday, from paralysis due to a bullet wound he received in France in 1917. He had been bedridden ever since. For some time he was a patient in the General Hospital for Australians and New Zealanders established at Mount Felix, Walton. The High Commissioner of New Zealand was represented at the funeral, conducted by the vicar of Walton (the Rev. R. M. Pattison Muir), and members .of lie Walton and district branch of the British Legion formed a parade. There wais a short service in the parish church, during which the Prizac hymn and the National Anthem were rendered. The deceased’s two aistors, Mrs. R. E. Priestley and Miss Marguerite Boyd, were present, and others who attended to 'pay a last tribute weie Mr. F. H. Felkins (brother-)il-ia w), Mr. C. Row (pensions officer, representing the High Commissioner), Mrs Loughlan, Mr. Reggie Stern, Mr J. B. Bucknill, Captain P. B. Garrett, C.8.E., R.N., CoL Bernard Myers, O.M.G. (first OI.C. of Mount Felix Hospital), Mr. W. S. Alexander (hon. secretary), and other local members of the British Legion. The cortege was preceded by the Anzac-banner and the Lgion stanard, to the graveside, where the committal was simply made. A large and reverent public watched the scene. The coffin bore a brass plate with the inscription “Pro Patria. Among the floral tributes was one from the Walton and district branch of the British Legion. The interment was the twentieth in the Anzac grave.