Duncan Gordon Boyes

Carried the Colour through enemy musket fire at Shimonoseki.

Duncan Gordon Boyes was born at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 5 November 1846. Educated at Cheltenham College and North Grove House Academy, he entered the Royal Navy and served as a midshipman aboard HMS Euryalus on the East Indies station. His family already had a connection with the Victoria Cross: his sister Louisa Mary married Thomas James Young, who had earned the decoration at Lucknow in 1857.

In September 1864, Euryalus was Vice-Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper's flagship in the allied expedition against the Choshu batteries commanding the Shimonoseki Strait in Japan. British, French, Dutch and American warships attacked the positions after foreign shipping had been fired upon. Naval landing parties then went ashore to disable the batteries and overcome the defenders.

On 6 September, seventeen-year-old Boyes carried a Colour with the leading company attacking a Japanese stockade. He kept it ahead of the advance despite intense musket fire. Both of the colour-serjeants supporting him fell, one mortally wounded and the other, Thomas Pride, dangerously wounded. Boyes continued forward until a superior officer ordered him to stop. The Colour was found to have been pierced six times by musket balls. Pride's conduct in supporting him was also recognised with the Victoria Cross.

Boyes's award was announced in the London Gazette on 21 April 1865. On 22 September that year, Admiral Sir Michael Seymour presented him, Pride and fellow Shimonoseki recipient William Seeley with their crosses on Southsea Common.

His naval career ended less than two years later. On 9 February 1867, Boyes and another midshipman faced a court-martial for entering the Bermuda naval yard after 11 p.m. in breach of standing orders, having been refused admission because they lacked passes. Both pleaded guilty and were dismissed from the service. Boyes had not advanced beyond the rank of midshipman.

After leaving the Navy, he went to New Zealand, where his brothers had a sheep station at Kawarau Falls near Queenstown. He died at Dunedin on 26 January 1869, aged twenty-two.

Victoria Cross citation London Gazette, 21 April 1865, issue 22960, page 2130

Mr. Duncan Gordon Boyes, Midshipman of Her Majesty's ship ‘Euryalus,’

and Thomas Pride, “Captain of the After-guard” of Her Majesty's ship ‘Euryalus,’

Date of Acts of Bravery, September 6th, 1864.

For the conspicuous gallantry which, according to the testimony of Captain Alexander, C.B., at that time Flag Captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper, K.C.B., Mr. Boyes displayed on the occasion of the capture of the enemy's stockade. He carried a Colour with the leading Company, kept it in advance of all, in the face of the thickest fire, his Colour-Serjeants having fallen, one mortally, the other dangerously, wounded ; and he was only detained from proceeding yet further by the orders of his superior Officer. The Colour he carried was six times pierced by musket balls. Thomas Pride, Captain of the After-guard, the survivor of the two Colour-Serjeants who supported Mr. Boyes in the gallant rush which he made in advance of the attack, is also recommended for the Victoria Cross for his conduct on this occasion.