Captain Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd b. 23 Nov 1906, d. 5 Apr 1939

Discussion in 'Prewar' started by jmcq, Jun 27, 2019.

  1. jmcq

    jmcq Junior Member

    Anyone know anything more about Captain Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd b. 23 Nov 1906, d. 5 Apr 1939, of the Scots Guards. He died in custody after being arrested in Germany about the beginning of April 1939. He and his brother , later Major, George Edward Lennox-Boy of the H.L.I. were arrested but George was released.

    Would they have been on a clandestine trip or just holidaying ?.

    Was there any questions about how he died ?
     
  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd
    1906–1939
    BIRTH 23 NOV 1906 • Bournemouth, Hampshire, England
    DEATH 5 APR 1939 • Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : Lennox-Boyd, Maj George Edward (1902-1943)
    1938-1939; visited Germany with his brother, Lt Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd, 1939, both were arrested; Donald Lennox-Boyd died in custody, but George Lennox-Boyd was released


    Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd (1906-1939) - Find...
    Captain, Scots Guards. Killed in Germany.
    Captain Donald Lennox-Boyd son of Florence Annie Lennox-Boyd nee Begbie and Alan Walter Lennox-Boyd and Florence Anne Lennox-Boyd, of Westminster, London. M.A. (Oxon.), F.R.G.S. County Councillor of Bedfordshire.
    In April 1939, he was with his brother George in Germany when the Nazis arrested them. He died in custody in Stuttgart, Germany on April 5th 1939. George was released.
    His brothers also died in WWII .
    Major George Edward Lennox-Boyd and
    Major Francis Gordon Lennox-Boyd buried at Ranville.


    Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd | Christ Church, Oxford University

    His probate record details Stuttgart as where he died.

    TD
     
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  3. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    St Mary's church, Henlow, Bedfordshire:

    Lennox-Boyd.jpg

     
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  4. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Newspaper report:
    Boyd.jpg
     
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  5. Lake Constan

    Lake Constan New Member

    Theres a brief discussion (pp. 270-1) of the brothers' travel in April 1939, the arrest and Donald's death in The Glamour Boys, the new book by Chris Bryant MP about anti-Hitler MPs in the 1930s.
    The trip was ostensibly a reciprocal mission with the German military to examine air raid preparations in their respective countries. Little is known about the arrest and death. The official cause was a heart attack - unusual in an active man in his 30s. The Germans cremated the body before brother Alan and his wife could reach Germany.
    The author suggests Donald may have been gay like his brother Alan and may have been especially targeted by the increasingly homophobic Nazis.
     
  6. Paul Rossi

    Paul Rossi New Member

    According to the Diaries of Chips Channon 1938 - 1943, edited by Simon Heffer and just published by Hutchinson, Donald Lennox Boyd was arrested by the Gestapo for homosexual offences and hanged himself in the prison cell on the night of 5th April 1939 two days before his trial. At the time Channon was working in the Foreign Office and he was a close friend of the Lennox Boyd family, so his diary entry is authoritative.
     

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