John B. Boyd, Seaman 1st Class U.S. Navy, died of wounds on Tulagi, British Solomon Islands. Buried at sea e.long. 160" 0' 35", s.lat. 9" 23' 38".

The son of Jackson Herr and Harriet McCook Boyd.

When World War II broke out, Harriet and Jackson’s older son, John, called “J.B.,” was a sophomore at Princeton University. He dropped out of college and joined the Navy. Harriet wrote in her journal, “J.B. enlisted in the Navy at Raleigh March 3, 1942, came home to wait until called.” He ultimately was assigned to a ship in the Pacific. Jackson Boyd also served in the Marine Corps during World War II, and Harriet entered many photos in her journal of the War Dog Training Command at Camp LeJeune, NC.

Included with the shots taken by the military are two photos of Jackson with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the occasion of the president’s visit to the installation.

News was received by Harriet on 21 December 1942, that John “J.B.” Boyd had been wounded in combat. Then on 6 January 1943, in a terse entry in her journal, Harriet wrote that the Navy department had wired her that her son had “died of his wounds, and had been buried at place of death.” The gravestone placed in his memory in the Harrisburg, Pa., family plot indicates that he died of wounds at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and was buried at sea.

Memorial Stone in the Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

Find A Grave Memorial# 66138270