Boys Howard V

Howard Vernon Boys was a cousin of my grandfather Leslie Norman Boys. Their fathers were brothers. Whereas their grandfather had migrated from London to Adelaide, the younger children moved from Adelaide to Perth.

He was born on 24 February 1913 in Claremont, youngest of 8 children, married Margaret Crichton Tait and died on 20 June 1994, also in Claremont. He is buried at Perth's Karrakatta cemetery.

Howard attended Christ Church Grammar School. His older brother Harold had been Head Prefect there in 1915 and 1916.

Between 1931 and 1939 he played 114 games for Claremont in what is now the Western Australia Football League (WAFL), mainly in the forward line but sometimes on the wing.

This table shows his career year by year.

This is a photo of the 1934 Claremont team, with Howard in the middle row. His career was curtailed by injury, which meant he was not in the first three Claremont premiership teams (1938, 1939, 1940).

The Claremont Club has a history site here. Doing a search on this site for "Boys" yields a number of references to him, including many other photos.

Howard was made a Life Member of Claremont in 1958.

He spent the first part of the war, at the end of his career, on Rottnest Island, but I am not sure what he did there. He enlisted in the army on 30 September 1942 at Salter's Point while living at Mount Hawthorn. His service record does not state what unit he was in, but he was discharged on 22 March 1943 with the rank of Sergeant. His service record does not state the reason for discharge, but says his posting on discharge was "Bulk issue petrol and oil depot".

He was also publican of first the Beverley hotel then the hotel on Scarborough beach. And later the Federal Hotel as shown below with Mum's annotation.

I met Howard at times when he and his family visited Adelaide.

Above is a photo of him and family with us near Victor Harbor in 1958. From left are Les Boys (my grandfather, Howard's cousin), Vernon, Howard's son, Margaret, Susan, Howard, Betty, my mother, Alberta Myrtle Boys, my grandmother, and me.

My mother visited Perth in 1987. In this photo are from left Howard's older sister Norma, Howard, Norma's daughter Jenni and Margaret.