Boyd, Palmer Vaiden
Title
Boyd, Palmer Vaiden
Last Name
Boyd
First and Middle Name
Palmer Vaiden
Hometown
Alton, Virginia
Birth Date
18 June 1894
Birthplace
Alton, Virginia
Death Date
8 March 1939
Cause of Death
Automobile accident
Place of Death
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Parents
William Boyd and Sally Jefferson Hailey
Siblings
Mary Lillie Boyd, John K. P. Boyd, Bettie B. Boyd, William J. Boyd, Nonie L. Boyd, John W. Boyd
Spouse(s)
Eula Cooper Boyd Freeman
VPI Graduating Class
1914
Service Branch
Army
Unit
- Sailed to France on the Mount Vernon on 29 March 1918 attached to Sanitary Detachment, 38th Infantry
- Returned to the United States from France in April 1919 attached to Medical Detachment, 1st Battalion
- Headquarters, 361st Infantry
- Grave marker indicates service with the 317th Infantry, 80th Division - this occured from his enlistment until 17 December 1917
Rank
Private
Military Events
Virginia native Sergeant Palmer Boyd, a medical corpsman with the 38th Infantry, wrote a brief memoir detailing his POW experience titled Kriegegefangenelager 80053: My Experience as a Prisoner of War in Germany. While being processed, he and other doughboys discovered they were being funneled through a building to be interrogated. The men conspired to tell the same story to ensure the German interrogator only obtained limited information. It was an early example of POW group resistance. As a POW barracks chief, he kept fellow POWs off work details aiding the German war effort. In another quick-thinking action, Boyd had about 75 American POWs, all newly arrived from the front, cut off the leather straps and rubber headbands from their helmets before the items could be confiscated. The Germans recycled those materials for their war effort. Though a captive, Boyd continued to fight on the POW battlefield.
Decorations or Citations
Croix de Guerre
Other Events
Captured
1927 "Virginia Polytehnic Institute in the World War" booklet
Yes
Bibliography
- "Remembering First World War POWs in a noble mission," Legiontown USA website (https://www.legiontown.org/ownwords/5260/remembering-first-world-war-pows-noble-mission), accessed 30 March 2025
- Photograph of Palmer Boyd upon his release from German captivity in November 1918 with shoes he carved himself (see attached photo)
- Kriegegefangenelager 80053: My Experience as a Prisoner of War in Germany. Palmer V. Boyd (Lynchburg, Virginia: Press of Brown-Morrison Company, 1919 or 1920)
Files
Collection
Citation
“Boyd, Palmer Vaiden,” VPI in World War I, accessed April 10, 2025, https://vpiworldwarone.lib.vt.edu/items/show/227.
Comments (if you have information about a veteran or would like to talk about a veteran, also email the project director Daniel Newcomb at danieln1@vt.edu with your information or question)