Henry Cecil Boys (1885-1935)
1935 Obituary [1]
Captain HENRY CECIL BOYS, O.B.E., was assistant superintendent of design at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and since 1920 had been in charge of the design of small arms, machine guns, and small-arms ammunition.
He was born at Clacton on Sea in 1885, and after being educated privately he received technical training under his father, a railway civil engineer.
From 1903 until 1912 he studied explosives and the manufacture of war material. During the War he acted as instructor in a school of gunnery, and in 1915 he became an assistant inspector at the Royal Arsenal. His appointment as assistant superintendent of design took place in 1917, and at first he was concerned with experimental work on fuses. He was a War Department representative on the British Standards Institution for some years. Latterly he developed new methods of manufacture for small arms and brought out specifications for the standardization of materials.
In 1927 he was awarded the O.B.E. in recognition of his work. He was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1928.
He was the inventor of the Boys anti-tank rifle, on which he was working up to the time of his death, which occurred at Enfield on 24th November 1935.
1935/36 Obituary [2]