Notes
His biography on the college website (see references) states: ‘Francis Gordon was the youngest of the four sons of Alan Walter Boyd [later Lennox-Boyd by Deed Poll in 1925], a barrister, and his second wife, Florence Annie Begbie Like his brothers he was born in Bournemouth.
The family lived at Roysdean, 5 Derby Road, a house with nineteen rooms. They moved to Broadley House, Sway, Hampshire before 1927. He was educated privately and Matriculated in 1927 and read English. At the time of his Finals, he was at home in Henlow having been operated on for appendicitis. He was given an Aegrotat and did the exams in bed. [An Aegrotat was a medical certificate stating that a student was too ill to sit the exams with everyone else.]
Francis joined the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons). Early in the war, he raised a Pioneer company composed of Arabs and Jews, in Palestine. He had reached the rank of Major when he was seconded to be the first Commanding Officer of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company in the winter of 1943-44. He was to recruit both volunteers and trained parachutists for this specialist unit. At 0020 hours on June 6th 1944, D Day, with sixty of his pathfinders, he parachuted in to France. Their task was to mark the three “drop zones” which were to be used by the British Airborne Division. At 18.00 the previous evening - All officers had attended the final briefing of R.A.F. crews. At 23.00 - 2 sticks emplaned at Brize Norton. The first Aircraft V 1701 - Albemarle - 296 Squadron carried:
Major Francis Gordon Lennox-Boyd
Private T. O'Brien
Corporal Corbett
Sergeant L. Drake
Private Beattie
Private R. Newton
Sergeant Lindores
Sergeant S. Patterson (Royal Army Medical Corps)
Private Hinchcliffe ?
Lieutenant Moore (attached from Royal Signals)
The second Aircraft P 1383 - Albemarle - 297 Squadron carried:
Captain Ian Andrew Tait
Sergeant Frederick Scogging
Corporal Maw
Corporal Dodwell
Corporal Johnston
Lance-Corporal G. Fairhurst
Private Morrell
Private Edward Sidney Gillum
Company Sergeant Major Bernard McGuinness
Corporal O. Kendall
At the same time four sticks emplaned at Harwell and half an hour later, one stick emplaned at Keevil. Two sticks commanded by Capt. Tait and Lt. More dropped on SE corner of Dropping Zone.
00.23 - Maj Lennox-Boyd made premature & accidental exit SE of DZ. Has not been heard of since and is reported missing. Francis died that day and is buried in Ranville War Cemetery Plot IIIA. G. 5.
He is commemorated on the Memorials at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; the Special Forces Memorial and by the oak pews in Henlow church. The pews were designed by the eminent architect Sir Albert Richardson and given in memory of Francis and his brothers whose memorial tablet can be seen on the south wall of the church. Their brother, Alan, later 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, had bought Henlow Grange, Bedfordshire in the mid-1930s.' His elder brother s George and Donald are also commemorated on this memorial.