Owen Tudor Boyd

Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, (30 August 1889 – 5 August 1944) was a British aviator and military officer. He served with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War before transferring to the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1918, with which he served during the interwar period and into the Second World War.

Education and pre-war career Born in Marylebone, Boyd was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. On 20 January 1909, he was commissioned on the 'unattached list for the Indian Army' and attached to a British Army regiment in India before being appointed to the Indian Army in March 1910. Boyd was posted to the Indian Army's 5th Cavalry. He was promoted Lieutenant on 20 April 1911.

First World War Boyd was promoted temporary Captain, Indian Army, to date from the 1 September 1915 in the London Gazette of 28 July 1916. From 25 April 1916, he saw service in the First World War as a flying officer with the Royal Flying Corps. Later in 1916, he was a pilot on the Western Front with No. 27 Squadron; on 9 July, he was promoted to flight commander. One history book refers to "the reported circumstance is a navigation error and consequent fuel shortage" in the flight that led to Boyd's capture.

After destroying his confidential papers by setting his own aircraft on fire, Boyd became a prisoner of war (POW). He spent much of the war in the Castle Vincigliata (Castello di Vincigliata) camp near Florence, Italy.

When Italy capitulated in September 1943, Boyd and two British Army generals (Philip Neame and Richard O'Connor, both captured in North Africa in 1941), escaped with help from the Italian resistance movement while being transferred from Vincigliata. After spending time in the Italian countryside and a failed rendezvous with a submarine, they arrived by boat at Termoli, then went on to Bari where they were welcomed as guests by General Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied Armies fighting on the Italian Front, on 21 December 1943. Their escape was led by a Lieutenant Colonel Pat Spooner, who had escaped once before and returned to German-controlled Italy.

Of all of RAF Bomber Command's wartime group commanders, Boyd spent the shortest time in command of his appointed group. In late July 1944, he was divorced. Little more than a week later, on 5 August, he was dead from a heart attack.