Fullerton Rimmer Boyd was born in Malta on the 14th April 1877, the son of Fullerton and Agnes Boyd (née Burns). His parents were from Scotland, and his father was a career soldier, being a sergeant in the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, also known as the “Black Watch”, and had served in India, Gold Coast, Malta, and Cyprus, during his 21 year career. Fullerton was one of nine known children in the family.
In 1879, his father retired from the British Army on medical grounds and the family first settled in Liverpool, Lancashire, before later moving to Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. After completing his education in Glasgow, Fullerton became an apprentice iron moulder.
At some stage, he changed career and joined the British Mercantile Marine as a ship’s steward and moved back to Liverpool, presumably because of better work opportunities.
On the 9th September 1901, he married Helen Dickie Smillie, and the couple had one son, Fullerton junior. In 1915, the family lived at 93, Lawton Road, Waterloo, Liverpool.
On the 12th April 1915, at Liverpool, he engaged as one of two barkeepers in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania, at a monthly rate of pay of £10-0s-d, and reported for duty at 7 a.m. on the 17th April, before the liner left Liverpool for the last time. His previous ship had been the Anchor Lines ship Transylvania. The other barkeeper on board the Lusitania was Henry Ross from Aintree, Liverpool.
Having completed the east to west crossing of the Atlantic, the Lusitania left New York on the early afternoon of the 1st May 1915, for her return voyage to Liverpool. She never made it; however, for on the afternoon of the 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, off the Old Head of Kinsale, only about twelve to fourteen hours away from the safety of her home port.
Although Barkeeper Ross perished in the sinking, Barkeeper Boyd survived this action and after being rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he eventually made it back to Liverpool.
Once there, he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s final voyage and paid the balance of wages owed to him in respect of this. This amounted to £9-1s-0d., (£9.05p.), and represented his service from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May; 24 hours after the liner had sunk. All crew members were paid accordingly, whether they survived or not.
Fullerton Boyd continued to serve as a bar steward on liners after surviving the ordeal of the Lusitania sinking, and when Liverpool declined as a trans-Atlantic liner port, he re-located with his family to Southampton, Hampshire. He eventually “swallowed the anchor” and became the proprietor of the Kingsland Tavern, St. Mary Street, Southampton. He lived overhead the premises with his wife.
He was still running the public house when he died on the 17th October 1929, aged 52 years. He was buried in Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool, on the 21st October 1929, in Section, Grave 232, where he lies today.
Administration of Fullerton Rimmer Boyd’s estate was granted to his widow Helen Dickie Boyd on the 10th December 1929, and his effects amounted to £1,155-4s-9d. (£1,155.14p).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, GRO Army Chaplains Birth Indices 1796 – 1880, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, England & Scotland Select Cemetery Registers 1800 – 2016, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, UK Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Admissions and Discharges 1715 – 1925, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 3449, PRO BT 350, PRO BT 351/1/13796, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 18th December 2022.