Archie Boyd

Wing Commander Archibald Douglas McNeill Boyd, (20 June 1918 – 4 April 2014) was a Royal Air Force officer and flying ace of the Second World War, and a businessman.

Early life Boyd was born on 20 June 1918, in Sheffield, England. He was educated at Harrow School, a public boys boarding school in London. He then matriculated into Trinity College, Oxford to study engineering. and learnt to fly. He flew the Bristol Beaufighter as a night fighter during the Battle of Britain in the later part of 1940. On the night of 16 May 1941 he brought down a Junkers Ju 88 followed by two Heinkel He 111 bombers, one on the night of 10 October and the second on the night of 2 December. He shot down a further 2 aircraft in early 1942, a Heinkel He 111 bomber on the night of 25 January and a Heinkel He 115 on the night of 7 March,

He was promoted to temporary squadron leader on 1 June 1942. In March 1943, he was appointed officer commanding No. 219 Squadron RAF in preparation for an overseas posting. That month, the squadron was posted to North Africa, where it operated from Bône in French Algeria. He scored the first victories for the squadron during that posting by shooting down two Junkers Ju 88 bombers during the night of 30 June into 1 July. During August and September, he shot down one Junkers Ju 88 and two Heinkel He 111 bombers. His squadron provided air cover during the Normandy landings of June 1944. By the end of the war he had flown 595 sorties.