Profile image
Military service
Service number:
12829
Age:
24
Rank:
Private
Force:
Army
Unit/Regiment:
Canadian Machine Gun Corps
Division:
Eaton's Motor Machine Gun Bty
Birth:
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Enlistment:
Moosomin, Saskatchewan
Death:
October 30, 1917
Burial/memorial information
Grave reference:
XII. D. 22.
Additional information
Son of Ephraim James and Helen Boffin, of Forest Hill, Oxford, England.
Born in 1893. Listed his civilian occupation as farmer.
Additional citations
1914-15 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal.
Digital gallery of Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
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Circumstances of Death Registers
Private Boffin #12829 was killed in action during the attack on the Village of Passchendaele on 30 October 1917. He and Corporal Johnstone #794 were together at the time, both of which paid the ultimate sacrifice. -
Circumstances of Death Registers
Private Boffin's remains were collected from the battlefield and buried at the Waterloo Farm (Canadian) Cemetery located at trench map coordinates 28.D.9.d.8.8. After the Armistice, his remains were exhumed from that cemetery and concentrated into the Tyne Cot Cemetery, a short distance to the southeast. -
Document
The war diary reports that Private Boffin #1289 and Corporal Johnston #794 were two of the men in an ammunition party that was sent out to find small arms ammunition to feed the 1st Canadian Machine Gun Brigade. Both Boffin and Johnston were killed and another 9 other ranks were wounded. Based on the location where Corporal Johnston was reported lost, we know that they were to the southeast of the Field Ambulance at Waterloo Farm Cemetery, specifically at trench map reference 28.D.16.b.75.45. -
Map
Corporal Johnston #794 and Private Boffin #12829, the two men killed in the shelling of the party collecting the ammunition were together at the time of their death. They fell in the vicinity of 28.D.16.b.75.45, as recorded for Corporal Johnston. They were initially buried at Waterloo Farm (Canadian) Cemetery. This local cemetery was later concentrated into the Tyne Cot Cemetery, where it is reported: "TYNE COT CEMETERY was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds, including the following: WATERLOO FARM CEMETERY, PASSCHENDAELE, 650 metres North-East of 's Gravenstafel, containing the graves of ten soldiers from Canada, seven from the United Kingdom and two from New Zealand, who fell in 1917-18". -
Cemetery
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Cross of Sacrifice
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Grave marker
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
Digital gallery of
Private Alfred Sydney Boffin
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 203 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.
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