Born – Cardiff, 3rd May 1890
Died – Belgium, 2nd October 1918
Alan Boswell played for the all-amateur Glamorgan XI which played in August 1914 at Weston-super-Mare. Tragically, it was his last-ever game of cricket as within a fortnight, he had enlisted in Cardiff before joining the Grenadier Guards.
Born and raised in Cardiff, Alan had shown great prowess in a number of sports whilst a pupil at Cardiff High School, and then subsequently whilst studying chemistry at University College, Cardiff. He was an outstanding footballer with Cardiff Corries FC and shortly after graduating he won the first of three amateur soccer caps for Wales besides also leading the Cardiff corries to win the Welsh Amateur Cup.
He was also a talented hockey player and won a place in the Whitchurch side, whilst as far as summer pastimes were concerned he soon became a leading light with the Cardiff Alpha club who were based in Canton. Some decent batting performances for the Alpha club led Boswell to come to the attention of the Glamorgan selectors and in August 1914 he was invited to play in the all-amateur side which met a Weston and District XI at Clarence Park.
Alan initially had trained as teacher at University College Cardiff, before becoming a science teacher at Canton High School but in October 1914 he joined the Grenadier Guards and after training at various camps in the UK he embarked from Southampton in September 1915 to Le Havre, before being redeployed to Marseilles and subsequently serving with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Salonika.
In May 1916 Alan returned to the UK and was transferred to the Machine Gun School before joining the Royal Flying Corps and trained to become a pilot. He undertook a number of courses on flying the Sopwith Camels and the other biplanes belonging to the Royal Flying Corps before heading to the Western Front. In September 1917 he duly became a Second Lieutenant in the 108th Squadron and undertook a number of successful sorties over enemy lines but sadly, on October 2nd, 1918 he disappeared whilst flying over Dunkirk. Nothing was seen or heard of him after his aircraft flew into a cloud and it is believed he was shot down, and subsequently killed.