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Private Austin Boyle 330174
6th King’s Liverpool Regiment
Son of Thomas Boyle of Elm
Place, Ormskirk. He was employed by J.J. Balmforth at their Ormskirk foundry
before leaving for France in March 1915.
After twelve months active
service Austin was invalided home, suffering from rheumatic fever and
subsequently discharged. However he rejoined in April 1917 and left for the
front, for a second time in June 1917. After only six weeks, on the 24th
July 1917 Rifleman Boyle was hit with Fragments from an exploding shell killing
him instantly. Austins captain sent Mr Boyle his sons effects, which included a
note-book and a cigarette case which was damaged by the shell. Second Lieutenant
R.R. Rathbone. Another of the deceased officers also wrote saying that Austin
was a splendid soldier and was 
killed whilst carrying material to the front
line.
He was buried by an English
clergyman in what is now Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium, in plot V,
row A, grave 7. This is east of Ypres on
the south side of the N38.
Private Austin Boyle was a
single man aged 22.
Footnote
The cigarette case was among
effects returned to the family for a second time in April 1945.
Austin’s brother Robert, a railway worker, (who had changed shifts for
a friend) was one of three fatalities in a train crash at Kirkby.
He had carried Austin’s cigarette case since 1917.
