Petworth Bridge Renamed In Honour Of A Fallen Soldier – David Ira Boyce

Jeff Green | Oct 06, 2021

(Editors note - the article was edited from the version which appeared in the print edition of the Frontenac News on October 7/2021. The edits were completed for accuracy and grammatical purposes - thanks to Alan Boyce for providing helping to clean up the text)

David Brown’s curiosity has resulted in the discovery of a long-lost WWI vet, and a bridge renaming request.

Brown has been living in Petworth (in the Yarker/Harrowsmith area) for 6 years, after moving from Orillia when his wife Sharron became the commander of the Frontenac OPP detachment.

He was chatting with a neighbour one day about the history of Petworth, and they noted that while all of the other villages in South Frontenac had signage, Petworth had none. When he looked up Petworth, South Frontenac, on Google, he found it listed as a ghost town, which was news to him, and the 25 or so households who lived in the GPA (Greater Petworth Area).

Looking further down the Google listings, he noticed something else.

A name came up, David Ira Boyce, a corporal with the 20^th Battalion of the Canadian Army, who was killed in action on November 10/1918 near St. Symphorien, in Belgium.

The military record for Corporal Boyce’s demise is short and clinical - “Killed in Action’ – this soldier was seriously wounded in the head by shrapnel. A comrade went to assist him, but he died shortly afterwards.”  

When Boyce enlisted, in 1915, he listed his place of residence as Harrowsmith, and his place of birth as Petworth. He was 28 years old and single.

“I am a member of the Sydenham Legion, so I went over and checked the honour roll and he wasn’t listed there at all,” David Brown said, in a phone interview this week. “I told a neighbour that maybe we should rename the Petworth bridge in David Boyce’s honour, and he thought it was a good idea.”

Brown then did some more research in the Boyce family history in South Frontenac. He found Alan Boyce, who lives on 14 Island Lake.

Alan is Percy Boyce’s grandson. Percy was one of David’s younger brothers. He fought in WWI as well, and survived. Alan provided David Brown with details about the Boyce family.

“I told Alan that we are thinking about suggesting to the township rename the Petworth Bridge for David Boyce, since he has been forgotten for so many years, he thought it was a good idea too,” said Brown.

There are no Boyces listed as homeowners in Petworth around the time of David Boyce’s birth in 1887, but his mother Eva Eliza’s maiden name was Smith.

The Smith family was prominent in Petworth at the time. Ira Smith, Eva’s father, owned the Blacksmith shop that is still standing today.

“The best I can tell, and this is just an assumption, is that Eva and George Boyce, David Boyce's father, were living with Eva’s parents when he was born, and they moved to Harrowmsith later on,” said Brown.

A synopsis of the David Boyce story, along with a petition signed by everyone who lives in the GPA, is going to South Frontenac Council this week in support of a request for the one lane bridge over the Napanee River, which is known as the Petworth bridge but does not necessarily have an official name, to be officially named in memory of Corporal David Ira Boyce.

The township is also being asked to put up signage on both sides of the bridge, with the Royal Canadian Legion emblem.

“If the approval comes from the township, my next email will be to the President of the Sydenham Legion, asking him to apply to the Royal Canadian Legion headquarters for approval for the use of the poppy on the sign” said Brown, who is hoping, perhaps optimistically, for a sign to go up by November 10^th, the 103^rd anniversary of David Boyce’s death.