754 Colour Sergeant

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, BSAE, P.E., MinstRE
(December 2024)

Figure 1. Colonel F.R.F. Boileau, R.E.
(Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

Research into the life and military service of Colonel Boileau was inspired by the photograph above, which was found on the Imperial War Museum web site “Lives of the First World War.”

2. FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Boileau came from a military family. His grandfather was Major General Francis Burton Boileau (1806-1888), formerly of the Royal Artillery.¹ His father, Colonel Francis William Boileau, C.B. (1835-1915) of Elstowe, Camberley, was an officer in the Indian Army.² Boileau’s mother was Mary Letitia Boileau, née Bradford (1838-1913).³

Figure 2. Major General Francis Burton Boileau Fgure 3. Colonel Francis William Boileau

Frank Ridley Farrer Boileau was born in Lucknow, India on 29 November 1867.⁵ He entered Cheltenham College as a day boy in September 1882 and won the school prize in 1885 before passing out of Cheltenham in July of that year.⁶ Following his primary education at Cheltenham, Boileau entered the Royal Military Academy (RMA), Woolwich in 1885.⁷

Boileau was gazetted a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 16 February 1887 following the successful completion of his studies at the RMA.⁸ Following his commissioning he was posted to the School of Military Engineering (SME) at Chatham for officer training.

His military training at Chatham included courses in field fortifications, construction, surveying, telegraphy, electric lighting, submarine mining, photography, chemistry, military law and tactics. The Field Fortifications course lasted for 4 months and 23 days. This course consisted of field and siege engineering, field defence, attack of fortresses, mining construction, demolition of railways and water supply. The Construction course was 6 months and covered building materials, engineering construction, hydraulics, construction of barracks, drainage, manufacture of iron and steel, mining, quarrying and machinery. Next came the Surveying course consisting of five months of technical training in geodesy, astronomy, meteorology, trigonometrical chain and road surveys and use of surveying instruments. One to two months of military topography followed, which included military surveying and sketching and elementary reconnaissance. In the School of Telegraphy, Electric Lighting and Submarine Mining he studied the theory of electricity, use of telegraph instruments, bracing and connecting instruments, making of batteries, firing mines and testing tubes. All of this was accomplished in two months with an additional one month devoted to electric lighting, signalling by flag, lamps and heliograph. The School of Chemistry was a short course of varying length that generally covered practical chemistry, especially relating to limes, concrete and other building materials. Finally, the School of Military Law and Tactics, also a course of varying length, consisted of special lectures in law and tactics as dictated by current military situations. This training at the School of Military Engineering lasted for just under 24 months, which he would have completed in early 1889.

Following his completion of training at the SME, Boileau was posted to India where he was promoted to Lieutenant on 16 February 1890.⁹ In 1892 he took part in the operations against the Eastern Lushai clans.¹⁰

The Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1889–90 was a British punitive expedition in Burma and India against the tribes of the Chin Hills and Lushai Hills. Following the Lushai Expedition of 1871–72, the border regions of Burma and India remained relatively peaceful with few raids occurring. In 1888 however raids became more frequent, and in February 1889, Lieutenant Stewart of the British Army and his surveying party were murdered by Chin tribesmen, and the government was determined to stop the raids

Throughout the summer of 1889 the Political Officer kept up negotiations with the Soktes and Siyins, but though they surrendered a large number of Burman captives, they continued to give trouble by cutting the telegraph wires, ambushing convoys, and firing into the British posts. These facts, coupled with the advisability of thoroughly exploring and opening out the narrow strip of country which alone now divided British Burma from India, led to the undertaking, in the cold weather of 1889–90, of military operations from Burma and Chittagong into the country of the Chins and Lushais.

The Royal Engineers involved in these operations consisted of the 5th Company, Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners (95 men) with the Northern Column, the 6th Company, Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners (151 men) with the Southern Column and the 2nd Company, Bengal Sappers and Miners (80 men) with the Chittagong Column. In addition, a company of 102 men of the 28^th Bombay Pioneers was with the Chittagong Column. This company had Royal Engineers officers assigned to it.

It is not known to which of these companies Boileau was posted and since he did not arrive in India until 1892 he only was involved in the final phases of the Lushai operations. He was, however, fully involved with the Chitral Relief Force in 1895 where the 1^st, 4^th and 6^th Companies of the Bengal Sappers and Miners and the 6^th Company of the Madras Sappers and Miners were employed. Based on information provided by De Ruvigny, Boileau served as an Assistant Field Engineer to the Divisional Troops of the Chitral Relief Force from March to August 1895. The engineer operations in the relief force are described below as presented by Sandes in his book The Indian Sappers and Miners.

“The Chitral Relief Force having crossed the Malakand, the Sappers and Miners turned their attention to bridging, though road construction was undertaken also to facilitate the advance northwards. The main engineering feature of the operations before and after Chitral was reached in 1895 is undoubtedly the extensive and ingenious bridge building by the Sapper companies and military or civilian labour under Majors M. C. Barton and F. J. Aylmer, VC, Captains G. Williams, G. M. Heath, J. R. B. Serjeant, F. E. G. Skey and H. C. Nanton, Lieutenants C. Ainslie, G. C. Kemp, C. O. Halliday, H. F. Thuillier and F. R F. Boileau and several other junior officers of the Royal Engineers. . . . Barton, with the 1^st and 6^th Companies, Bengal S. & M., under Serjeant and Skey, built a trestle and crate bridge, 1,350 feet in length, over the Swat River at Chakdarra between April 9^th and 16^th, 1895; and on April 12^th, Aylmer, with the 4^th Company, made a floating bridge, 92 feet long, of log rafts across the Panjkora River two miles below Sado and between April 14^th and 16^th, after the log bridge had been washed away, a suspension bridge of 90 feet span two miles further downstream. Serjeant, with the 1^st Company, completed a suspension bridge (200 feet) across the Panjkora above Sado between April 20^th and May 1^st. Between April 19^th and May 30^th, Williams, with the 6^th Company, Madras S. & M., under Ainslie, assisted by 200 civilian artificers and parties of a Pontoon Detachment of the Bengal Corps, erected a very fine structure over the Swat River at Chakdarra consisting of a suspension bridge across the left-bank channel with a central span of 250 feet and two subsidiary spans of 125 feet each, and across the right-bank channel a similar bridge with dimensions 110 feet and 55 feet respectively. Over the intervening island, a trestle bridge of trussed beams was provided giving a total length of bridge of 944 feet. Heath, with Lieutenant F.R.F [sic] Boileau, RE., and the Pontoon Detachment before mentioned, bridged the channels of the Swat River at Chakdarra with pontoons on several occasions between April 28^th and May 13^th while Williams was at work on his suspension bridge. Early in May, the 6th Company, Bengal S. & M., with Kemp and Halliday in charge, erected a trestle and crib bridge, 240 feet long, over the Jandol River near its junction with the Panjkora. In June, Serjeant, with the 1^st Company, completed a suspension bridge of 78 feet span at Chutiatan below Dir and in July remodeled a cantilever bridge (66 feet span) over the Ushiri River at Darora. The list may be concluded with a mention of a fine suspension bridge of 294 feet span erected by Aylmer and the 4^th Company between August 22^nd and September 13^th over the Chitral River opposite the site selected for a new fort about 1½ miles downstream of the old fort at Chitral, and of two bridges built by Nanton between Mardan and Dargai - one a suspension bridge of 200 feet span at Jalala and the other a large wooden trussed bridge of two spans near Sakhakot. When it is added that some 78 small cantilever or trestle bridges were built also between May and September 1895 along the road to Chitral it will be realized that the Bengal and Madras Sappers and Miners had unique experience in this branch of engineering.”

For his service during the Lushai expedition, Lieutenant Boileau was awarded the India General Service Medal 1854-1895 with the clasp [Lushai 1889-1892]. For his service with the Chitral Relief Force he was also awarded the clasp [RELIEF OF CHITRAL] for this medal.

Boileau remained in India following the operations described above and on 27 July 1897 he was promoted to the rank of Captain. On 9 April 1898 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of the Anglo-German South-East African Boundary Commission.¹³

Boileau arrived at Lake Nyasa on 18 June 1898 and joined the Boundary Commission under Chief Commissioner Captain Charles Frederick Close, R.E. The mission of the commission was to delimit the frontier between British and German territories from Lake Nyasa to Lake Tanganyika. This portion of the survey was completed by 20 December 1898 when Boileau and the survey team reached Lake Tanganyika.¹⁴ Captain Boileau relinquished his position on the Boundary Commission on 28 February 1899 and was posted to Curragh Camp in Ireland.

Upon his arrival at Curragh Camp, Boileau was posted as the Second-in-Command of the 7^th Field Company under Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Francis Henry Style Kincaid, R.E.¹⁵ When Boileau joined the company it had a strength of 6 officers and 180 non-commissioned officers.¹⁶

Captain Boileau’s stay in Ireland was a short one. War clouds were forming in South Africa and the 7^th Field Company was alerted for deployment. The company left the Curragh for Southampton on 14 July 1899 and embarked the following day for South Africa.

The service of Captain Boileau and the 7^th Field Company in the South African War of 1899-1902 is described in detail in The Royal Engineers Journal of March 1932. The full article describing the companies service is presented below.

14^th July, 1899. The Company left the Curragh and embarked at Southampton on the 15^th, with a strength of 6 officers, 180 N.C.O.s and men and 30 horses. Bt. Lieut.-Colonel W. F. H. S. Kincaid in command.

5^th August; September to November. Arrived at Cape Town and was sent to Wynberg Camp and employed on [the construction of]¹⁷ accommodation.

In September, when war appeared inevitable, the Company was split up to various stations on the Cape Colony frontier.

No. 1 Section left for Kimberley, under Lieut. McClintock. No. 1 Section was involved in the siege of Kimberley almost at once.

H.Q. and No. 3 Section undertook a variety of works amongst which were the conversion of a railway bridge over the Orange River (120 feet span) for transport and the demolition of a road bridge at Hope Town.

No. 2 Section was employed on the defences of De Aar junction, an important railhead and depot. Sappers Matty and Oldcorn received the D.C.M. for their presence of mind when the detached telegraph and observation post which they were working was surrounded and captured. The enemy made the mistake of demanding surrender before cutting the telegraph and the sappers were able to send warning to Colesberg, 18 miles away, and smash up the office before surrendering.

20^th November. No. 2 Section rejoined the Company, which joined the 1^st Division and took part in the advance to the Modder River.

[23^rd November]. The company was present at the Battle of Belmont.¹⁸

28^th November. The Company went forward with an infantry escort to attempt the repair of the Modder River bridge, but, being received with heavy gun and rifle fire, were obliged to lie out under fire for the rest of the day, losing 3 sappers wounded. On the following day the Company threw a pontoon bridge of 13 bays across the river and cut ramps down the steep banks on each side.

12^th December – January 1900]. The company was in camp along the Modder River.

January, 1900. From December 12^th to early in February, 1900, the Company was in Modder River camp, employed on a variety of duties.

February, 1900. Marched with the Highland Brigade to Koodoesberg drift, arriving on the 4^th. They entrenched the summit of Koodoesberg hill and took part in the action on that day.

12^th February. Transferred to the newly-formed 9^th Division and accompanied it in the cross-country march to Bloemfontein.

18^th/19^th February. Battle of Paardeberg Drift. The Company was employed on strengthening the captured ground and in working a ferry.

20^th/26^th February. Employed making brushwood shelters, sinking wells, maintaining ferries and pushing forward with the trenches which were gradually approaching the Boer lines.

26^th February. A party, under Col. Kincaid with Capt. F. R. F. Boileau and Lieutenants C. S. Wilson and H. Musgrave, took part in the capture of Cronje's Laager.

This is one of the most famous exploits in the history of the Company and the following extract from Conan Doyle's Great Boer War gives a very good description [and mentions Captain Boileau by name]:-

"The two brigades at either end of the Boer line had lost no chance of pushing on and now they had come within striking distance. On the night of February 26^th (1900) it was determined that Smith-Dorrien's men should try their luck. The front trenches of the British were at that time 700 yards from the Boer lines. They were held by the Gordons and the Canadians, the latter being nearer the river. The orders were that the Canadians were to advance and the Gordons to support. . . . The Canadians advanced in the darkness of the early morning before the rise of the moon. . . . Nearest the river-bank were two companies who were followed by the 7^th Field Company R.E., carrying picks and empty sandbags. The long line stole through the pitchy darkness knowing that, at any instant a blaze of fire, such as flamed before the Highlanders at Magersfontein, might crash out in front of them. A hundred, two, three, four, five hundred paces were taken. They knew that they must be close upon the trenches. If they could only creep silently enough they might spring upon the defenders unannounced. On and on they stole, step by step, praying for silence. Would the gentle shuffle of feet be heard by the men who lay within stone throw of them? Their hopes had begun to rise when there broke upon the silence of the night a resonant metallic rattle, the thud of a falling man, an empty clatter. They had walked into a line of meat cans slung upon a wire -only nine yards from the trench. At that instant a single rifle sounded and the Canadians hurled themselves down upon the ground. Their bodies had hardly touched it when from a line 600 yards long there came one furious glare of rifle fire.. . . In that terrible red light the men, as they lay and scraped desperately for cover, could see the heads of the Boers pop up and down, and the fringe of rifle barrels quiver and gleam. . . . To rush the trenches in the face of such a continuous blast of lead seemed impossible, and it was equally impossible to remain where they were. In a short time the moon would be up and they would be picked off to a man. The outer companies on the plain were ordered to retire . . . The right of the line was hardly in better plight. All firing had ceased for the moment, the Boers being evidently under the impression that the whole attack had recoiled. Uncertain whether the front of the small party on the right of the second line, now consisting of some 65 sappers and Canadians lying in one continuous line, was clear for firing should the Boers leave their trenches, Capt. Boileau, of the sappers, crawled forward along the bank of the river and discovered Capt. Stairs and 10 men of the Canadians, the survivors of the firing line, ensconced in a crevice of the river-bank overlooking the laager, quite happy on being reassured as to the proximity of support. This brought the total number of the daring band up to 75 rifles.. . . Col. Kincaid, R.E., now in command of the remains of the assaulting party . . . had his men distributed for digging as well as the darkness and the ignorance of the exact position relative to the Boers would permit.

"In the early dawn the workers found not only that they were secure themselves, but they were in a position to enfilade over half a mile of the Boer trenches. Before daybreak the British crouched low in their shelter so that the Boers did not realize the change which the night had wrought.. . . For half an hour (after daybreak) a brisk fire was maintained, at the end of which time a white flag went up from the lines. Kincaid stood upon his parapet and a single, haggard figure emerged from the Boer warren.

As he spoke his comrades scrambled out behind him and came walking and running over to the British lines.

"No doubt Cronje had already realized that the extreme limit of his resistance had come, but it was to that handful of sappers and Canadians that the credit was immediately due for that white flag which fluttered on the morning of Majuba Day over the lines of Paardeberg."

The action of the Company was highly commended by Lord Roberts, who inspected them and congratulated them on their gallant conduct.

28th February, 1900. No. 1 Section rejoined from Kimberley after the relief, none the worse for their adventures.

1^st March to 23^rd April. At Bloemfontein employed on the varied duties of a large camp, with one or two minor expeditions to relieve the monotony. This long halt did not provide much rest for the Company. [On 7 March the company saw action at Poplar Grove and on 10 March it took part in the battle of Driefontein].²¹ [Captain Boileau was mentioned in the 31 March 1900 despatch of Lord Roberts for his actions at Cronje’s Laager.

25^th April. The advance to Pretoria began, the Company marching with the Highland Brigade. On this day No. 2 Section, under Lieut. Wilson left to join the 19^th Brigade, part of General Ian Hamilton's force, and did not rejoin until December, 1900.

[10^th May]. The company took part in the action at the Zand River.²⁴

[May – June]. During this period the company took part in actions near Johannesburg and Pretoria and was at the Battle of Diamond Hill (11-12 June). Boileau served as the commander of an ad hoc pioneer unit for General Ridley’s brigade in the mounted infantry division. This unit was later designated the 2^nd Field Troop, R.E. On 27 June Captain Boileau left the 7^th Field Company and was posted to the Staff for operations in the Transvaal west of Pretoria²⁵

[27^th June – 14^th November]. During this period Captain Boileau served as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General of the Army Staff in South Africa.²⁶ On 14 November he departed South Africa aboard The Moor bound for the U.K.²⁷

Figure 4. Area in South Africa Where Boileau Served.
(Map courtesy of Wikipedia)

On 29 November 1900, shortly after his arrival home from South Africa, Boileau was appointed a Brevet Major.²⁸ The 1901 Census of England shows him attending the Army Staff College at Camberley during that year.²⁹ In January 1902 he married Mary Aurora Tudor at Newton Abbot, Devonshire. ³⁰

On 3 May 1902 Boileau was appointed a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General on the Headquarters Staff of the Royal Engineers at the War Office, Pall Mall, London and he served in that position until 18 July 1905.³¹ During this period his wife gave birth to two sons:³²

On 12 August 1905 Brevet Major Boileau was promoted to the substantive rank of Major³³ and was posted to Colchester to command the 9^th Field Company, R.E. He served under Lieutenant Colonel W.A.E. Sinclair, R.E., the Commander Royal Engineers, Eastern District at Colchester. The other officers in the 9^th Field Company were Captain F.A.K. White,³⁴ Lieutenant A. Campbell and Lieutenant Guy Charles Williams.³⁵

Boileau was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 31 March 1906 and was posted to India to serve as a professor at the Indian Staff College in Quetta.³⁶ His third son, Hugh Evan Ridley Boileau (1906–1952) was born on 10 September 1906 in Colchester, Essex.³⁷

Lieutenant Colonel Boileau served in India until the beginning of 1910 when he returned home. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel on 21 January 1910.³⁸

Colonel Boileau was appointed as the General Staff Officer, 1^st Grade in the 3^rd Division in the Southern Command at Buford, Oxfordshire on 1 July 1910. The 3^rd Division was a Regular Army division. The Long Long Trail indicates that at the time that Boileau joined the division it consisted of the following units:

The 3^rd Division was one of the first British formations to move to France in 1914 as part of the original British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and one of the first into action. The division formed part of the British II Corps. It remained on the Western Front throughout the war, although Boileau’s service in France was to be sadly cut short.

The division’s first action was the Battle of Mons which began on 23 August 1914. This action was followed by the Battle of Le Cateau which began on 26 August. Having retreated from Mons two days earlier, Le Cateau and Mons being 24.8 miles apart, the British II Corps under the command of General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien was exhausted. The corps had become separated from the rest of the BEF because of the unexpected retreat by Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of I Corps, who had fought a rearguard action at Landrecies on 25 August. Following that engagement, where Haig had rallied his troops, revolver in hand, he succumbed to panic, writing to the French High Command about the imminent debacle. He had greatly overestimated German numbers, was "[mentally] completely destroyed" – as described by James Edmonds, Chief of Staff of the 4^th Division. Instead of reinforcing Smith-Dorrien at Le Cateau, he retreated further inland, marching for five days.

Ignorant of the maneuver of I Corps, Smith-Dorrien intended to continue marching. Early on 26 August Smith-Dorrien changed his mind, seeing the exhaustion of his troops and the disorder that could occur should the marching continue. Edmund Allenby, commander of the II Corps' cavalry, claimed that both his men and the horses were "almost finished" and that battle at Le Cateau was inevitable, the enemy being so close. Sir Horace agreed. At 0700 hours he received a call from Henry Wilson at BEF HQ, ordering him to continue the retreat; he refused the order, confirming that the men were already fighting.

On the morning of 26 August, the Germans arrived and attacked II Corps. Unlike the Battle of Mons, where the majority of casualties inflicted by the British were from rifle fire, Le Cateau was an artillery battle with the devastating results that modern quick-firing artillery firing shrapnel shells could have on infantry advancing in the open. The British deployed their artillery about 160 feet to 660 feet behind the infantry, while the German artillery used indirect fire from concealed positions. With the guns so close to the infantry, the British had unintentionally increased the effectiveness of the German artillery-fire, because shells aimed at the British infantry could just as easily hit the British guns.

The British 5^th Division was on the right flank, on the southern side of the Le Cateau–Cambrai road between Inchy and Le Cateau. The 3^rd Division was in the centre, between Caudry and Inchy and the 4^th Division was on the left flank, on the north bank of the Warnelle. The road was sunken in places, providing inadequate long-range firing positions and in many places the Germans could close up to the British positions unobserved. On the right flank, west of Le Cateau, the Germans marched along the road from the north to Le Cateau. The British were on a forward slope and suffered many casualties during the withdrawal.

At 0330 hours, Smith-Dorrien decided to "strike the enemy hard and after he had done so, continue the retreat" but the purpose of the operation was unclear to his subordinates. A "hold at all costs" mentality was evident in the 5^th Division on the British right flank. The commander of the 2^nd Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was given a written order that "There will now be NO retirement for the fighting troops; fill up your trenches, with water, food and ammunition as far as you can". The order was confirmed by a colonel from the II Corps staff. The delaying action never occurred because the order arrived at the front line at about the same time as the Germans, in some places later. Nor were the conditions of a doctrinal delay observed, such as refusing to let British units be pinned down. Smith-Dorrien did not choose positions with adequate fields-of-fire and with prepared and hidden routes of withdrawal.

Holding their ground despite many casualties, around noon, the British right and then the left flank began to collapse. The arrival of the Corps de cavaliere Sordet (the French Cavalry Corps under General André Sordet) provided a shield for the British left flank and enabled the British to slip away, despite German attempts to infiltrate and outflank them. That night, the British and French withdrew to St Quentin.

The British suffered 7,812 casualties at Le Cateau, among them Colonel Frank Ridley Farrer Boileau. As indicated above, Le Cateau was an artillery battle and the Germans artillery must surely have fired on the 3^rd Division headquarters at some point to cause Boileau to be wounded on 27 August. He was evacuated to a military hospital in Boulogne and died of his wounds on the following day. He was later buried in the Terlincthun British Cemetery at Wimille, in Plot 16, Row A.B., Grave 1.³⁹ He was originally buried in Ham Communal Cemetery but on 27 June 1968, he was one of three soldiers whose bodies were removed and reburied ('concentrated') at Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France.⁴⁰

Probate of Boileau’s Will took place in London on 30 November 1914. His effects in the amount of £1,044, 4 shillings and 5 pence (about $150,800 in 2024 U.S. currency) were left to his widow.

For his service in India Colonel Boileau was awarded the India General Service Medal, 1854-1895 with clasps [LUSHAI 1889-92] and [RELIEF OF CHITRAL 1895]. For his service in the South African War, 1899-1902 he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps [BELMONT][MODDER RIVER][PAARDEBERG][DRIEFONTEIN] [JOHANNESBURG] and [DIAMOND HILL] For his service in the Great War of 1914-1918 he received the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Figure 6 .Examples of Medals Awarded to Colonel Boileau.
(Images from the author’s collection)

NOTE: The medals shown in Figure 9 are not those of Colonel Boileau. They are presented here for illustrative purposes only.

Figure 7. Medal Index Card of Colonel F.R.F. Boileau.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

On 27 November 1917 Colonel Boileau’s wife applied to the War Office for her husband’s 1914 Star. At the time she was living at 62 Burton Court, Chelsea, London S.W.3 and she resided there until 18 December 1917 when she moved to Windout Hall House in Exeter. The medal was sent to her at the Exeter address.

The following are brief descriptions of the military service of Colonel Boileau’s brothers.

Lieutenant Claude Frank Boileau, 1st Battalion, King's Own Light Infantry. He was a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned into the King's Own Light Infantry as a Lieutenant on 10 March 1883. His battalion was serving in Dinapore, Bengal and was part of the British Force assembled for the Third Anglo-Burmese War 1886-1888, commanded by Major General Harry Prendergast, The battalion had been sent to Burma as reinforcements in September 1886. The main fighting took place from 7 to 29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance continuing into 1887. Lieutenant Boileau died of fever in Burma aged 21 years.⁴¹

Frank’s Brother Etienne also served in the Great War as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 2^nd Battalion of the 2^nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles). During the Great War of 1914-1918, the 2^nd Battalion of the 2^nd King Edward's Own Gurkha Rifles, along with the other regiments of the Gurkha Brigade, served initially in Flanders, disembarking in France on 10 November 1914. In 1915, the battalion moved to Egypt, before returning to India in 1916. For his service he received the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, all issued by the Government of India (see Medal Index Card below).

Figure 8. The Medal Index Card of Lieutenant Colonel E.R.P. Boileau.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

Attended Brighton College. Commissioned in the East Lancashire Regiment and retired as a Captain. Died in Australia at the age of 77.

15KINCAID, Col. William Francis Henry Style, C.B. (1906); Colonel. R.E. (ret.); served in Soudan Expedition., 1884-5; Dongola Expedition., 1896, Nile Expeditions, 1897 and 1898; South African War, 1899-1902, Assistant Quartermaster General Administrative Staff, Aldershot Army Corps, 1903-7, A.Q.M.G.. 1915-19; son of late John Henry Kincaid, M.A., J.P., of Dublin: b. 1861; m. 1904, Rosamund, daughter of late J. J. Hamilton Humphreys. United Service Club.

17Notes in brackets [ ] have been added by the author.

29The Staff College course was a 2-year course; therefore, it may be assumed that Boileau was in attendance from about May 1900 to May 1901.

35Later General Sir Guy Charles Williams, CMG, DSO.

39Some sources suggest that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Reports at the time describe the level of stress and fatigue of the BEF and senior officers collapsing with exhaustion. There were other reported suicides. Given Boileau’s previous military record, this seems unlikely.