Aubrey Fair Boyd 
Biography of Aubrey Fair Boyd
Aubrey Fair Boyd, 1910-11 Editor of GUM
Aubrey Fair Boyd graduated MA from the University in 1914. He was born in Seattle, Washington on 4 September, 1890. The eldest of four children to James and Margaret Boyd, Aubrey later moved with his family to Alameda in the Oakland area of California.
Aubrey came to study Arts at the University of Glasgow in 1910, enrolling in classes such as English, History and Logic. In his time as a student, Aubrey became very involved in the Glasgow University Magazine (GUM), publishing several short stories and serving as editor from 1911-1912. His stories reveal a love of adventure, and an excruciatingly dry sense of humour. Mutiny tells the story of a group of young Scottish boys as they play at being Christopher Columbus and his crew. The grand expedition comically descends into bickering; “Looky here, Columbus,” interrupted a boy at the head of the restless mob, 'stow that blighted chart. Any fool kens wur no gaun tau Inja-war gaun tae America.'” Aubrey’s contributions to the magazine clearly made a mark, upon his departure to Brittany; another member of staff published a short farewell essay to mark the end of his time as editor. The essay recounts the first time Aubrey entered the GUM offices and proceeded to tell the bewildered editorial staff of a time when he battled sphinxes, dinosaurs and two-toed sloths in a cave in Yosemite national park. As Aubrey would say, they were understandably “gee-squizzled.”
After University, Aubrey returned to California, and was drafted in 1917 to fight in the First World War.
Aubrey continued to write in his life after University; he first published a novel entitled No Man’s Woman. In 1932 he published Smoky Pass, the story of Ed Maitland, a young boy in Seattle who falls in with a band of Frenchmen, on the trail of an “outlaw known of in the North-West and ‘Buck Tracy.’” Aubrey died on 12 April 1945 in San Francisco, California.
Sources
Other Online Resources
- 1910 Census Information
- California, Death Index, 1940-1997
- United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
Printed Materials
- Boyd, Aubrey. Smoky Pass (London: Methuen & Co., 1932)
Archival Materials
- DC/183/11/45 General Council Register pg. 22 year: 1921
- R3/2/1 University of Glasgow Dates of Birth of Graduates Volume III pg.19 year: 1897 to 1917
- R8/5/29/1 Matriculation Album 1908-1909
Summary
Aubrey Fair Boyd
Born 4 September 1890.
Died 12 April 1945.
GU Degree: MA, 1914; Arts,
University Link: Graduate
Occupation categories: journalists
English snippet: Arts graduate and editor of the Glasgow University MagazineRecord last updated: 19th May 2014
