Walter Boag is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing in Belgium, along with almost 35,000 other officers and men who have no known grave.
Along with many other casualties his family included his name on the family headstone and Walter is remembered in St Serf's churchyard in Dunning, Perthshire.
The inscription at the foot of the headstone is a line from Chapter 15 of St Paul's letter to the Corinthians: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed".
In 1901, the Boag family were living at Millhaugh Farm, Dunning, Perthshire. He was educated at Perth Academy and worked on his father’s farm until he enlisted with the Scottish Horse.
The Battle of Polygon Wood - The Battle of Polygon Wood was part of a larger operation staged as part of the third battle of Ypres. The operation was the second of the “Plumer battles”, a series of well planned, limited advances supported by large volumes of artillery, masterminded by General Herbert Plumer.
Scheduled to begin on the 26th September 1917, the attack was almost derailed by a German attack on the British X Corps, to the south of I ANZAC. Although Australian troops took part in fending off the Germans a day earlier, the advance began with continuing uncertainty as to the security of their flank.
The advance began on schedule at 5.50 am on the 26th, with the 4th and 5th Divisions, on the left and right respectively taking the lead. The infantry advanced behind a heavy artillery barrage, and they secured most of their objectives without difficulty. The Germans launched several counter-attacks but these were thwarted by the heavy defensive artillery barrages used to protect the infantry consolidating on their objectives, a feature of the Plumer battles.
Walter Boag would have lost his life at some stage of the second day of this action. He was 22 years of age. Walter Boag is also commemorated on the Dunning Parish War Memorial.