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Major Norman BOYER (38511)
1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment attached to the Sudan Defence Force Date of birth: 20th November 1907 Date of death: 20th November 1941 Killed in action aged 34 Commemorated on the Khartoum Memorial Panel 1
Norman Boyer was born at Estancia "Alta Ongamire", Cordoba in Argentina on the 20th of November 1907 the elder son of Louis Joseph Boyer, Manager of the Stores Department of the Great Southern Railway, and Olga Alberta (nee Schiele) Boyer of Ongamira, Capilla Del Monte, Cordoba Province in Argentina. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Manor House from September 1921 to December 1925. He was a member of the Boxing Team in 1924 and 1925, being Captain in 1925. He was a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1925 and gained his School Certificate in 1925. He was appointed as a House Captain in 1924. In 1926 he went on to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment on the 1st of September 1927. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of September 1930, became weapons training officer for the 1st Battalion and deployed with it for service in Palestine. In 1932 he returned home and was stationed at the Regimental Depot. He was winner of the King's Medal at Bisley in July 1932 with a score of 174 having entered the Army Championships several times previously without success. He was promoted to Captain on the 24th of April 1936 and, on the 4th of September the same year he was seconded for service with the Sudan Defence Force (Equatorial Corps). He was married at All Saints Brenchley on the 6th of June 1939 to Phoebe "Poppy" Wilhelme (nee Philpott) of Little Puxted, Brenchley in Kent. They had son, John Philpott Boyer OL, born on the 24th of February 1940. He was promoted to Major in 1941 and saw action in the Abyssinian Campaigns of 1940 and 1941. He was mentioned in despatches on the 30th of December 1941 for distinguished service in East Africa during the period February to July 1941 and on one other occasion. In November 1941 the Sudan Defence Force was part of the Sudan Column and was advancing towards Gondar. On the 20th of November they attacked Italian forces at Chilga, to the west of Gondar, but were unsuccessful with Norman Boyer being one of their casualties. The Italian garrison at Gondar surrendered on the 27th of November 1941. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Brenchley, on the memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst and on a stained glass window in the Chapel at Lavallol Cemetery.

Manor House