Story
Grey-haired Walter Boyt joined the Hampshires at the age of 46 and was posted to serve as a guard at a Prisoner of War Camp in Jersey. Just 242 days later he was discharged as a result of bronchitis. A bricklayer by trade, his medical record on being discharged states that three years earlier, 'whilst in civil employment he caught a severe “cold” and since then he has had occasional attacks of bronchitis and asthma.' He had caught that cold, it said, in Bournemouth. On 4 November 1915 he was admitted to a military hospital in Jersey and kept in for 25 days. He was readmitted nine days later. His Army medical record records: 'Patient admitted suffering from chronic cough and shortness of breath. On examination sub-crepitant rales can be heard all over chest, back and front.' (In other words, he had a rattle in his chest.' The Army doctor reported that he had copious frothy sputum and that his heart and pulse were weak. The medical record also records that the extent of his capacity for earning a full livelihood in the general labour market was 'lessened, at present by one-fourth.' Private Boyt had previously served with the Dorset Artillery Volunteers and, on discharge for being no longer fit for war service by the Hampshires his character was described as 'good'. His regimental number with the Hampshires 5th Battalion was 21948. He left the Army on 13 January 1916. Walter was 5ft 8ins with blue eyes and a 'robust' figure. After the war ended he received the Silver War Badge for his Army service. Walter was born on 23 May 1868 at Parley, Hampshire, the son of Alfred (an agricultural labourer) and Harriett Boyt, nee Vine. He was christened on June 21 and the family's home was listed as being in East Parley. In 1881 the family was living at 31 Parley Green. Walter, still at school, had older brothers living at home, both agricultural labourers like their dad. He also had an older sister. A decade later and Walter was boarding at 327 Albert Road, Heatherlands, Poole. It was the home of Fred and Mary Boyt who were presumably relations. He married Emily Ellen Hillman on Christmas Day 1893. The couple would have three children, all boys – Walter Henry George, known as George; Hector Joseph; and Alfred Cyril. The family moved around the area. In 1901 they were living at 1 Knowle Villa, Alexandra Road, Parkstone. According to electoral registers, four years later, Walter Boyt was living in West Road and, two years after that in Madeira Road. By the time of the 1911 census the family was living at a house called Parley (the name of Walter's birthplace) in Hillman Road in Parkstone. (Coincidentally Hillman had been his wife's maiden name.) The house was listed as having six rooms Walter was a foreman bricklayer and his two eldest sons, too, were working. Son Walter Henry George, then 16, was a picture framer and gilder and 13-year-old Hector a telegram messenger. The eldest boy, George, would later serve as a Quarter Master with the Royal Field Artillery and Hector as a private with the Royal Army Medical Corps. After the war, in the early 1920s, the family were still at Parley in Hillman Road, with Walter, wife Emily Ellen and sons Alfred and Hector registered there as electors. Next door was a William George Hillman. Was this Ellen's father? Sadly, Walter's wife Emily Ellen passed away in 1927 (leaving effects to the value of £580. By 1939, widower Walter was living with his youngest son, Alfred, and daughter-in-law Gladys and their two young daughters at 57 Albert Road, Parkstone. Alfred was described as a 'baker and confectioner, grocer and retail master. Walter, a retired builder's foreman, 'helped in the shop.' His granddaughters there were called Gladys and Dorothy. Despite his chest infections that led to his being discharged from the Army, he lived to the age of 73, dying in Poole on 10 August 1941. Probate was granted to his son Walter Henry George Boyt, a munitions worker. He left estate to the value of £2,047 17s 6d. * Please contact us if you wish to suggest an amendment or addition.