Thomas J.L. Stirling Boyd was born in Edinburgh on 23 Oct 1886, the only child of Patrick J. Stirling Boyd, DL (Deputy Lieutenant). He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Trinity College, Oxford (MA 1915, Hon. Fellow 1969). During the First World War, he served as Assistant Paymaster, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), and later in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He became a Barrister, Inner Temple, in 1919.

In Sep 1927, Boyd was appointed Judicial Commissioner in Sarawak. Previously, there had been no officer with legal qualifications to administer a legal office there: the appointment followed a suggestion made to the Rajah by the Governor of the Straits Settlements that it was desirable that consideration be given to the procedure of the Sarawak Courts. Boyd arrived in Kuching on 3 Jan 1928 to take up the appointment, to act as legal adviser to the Rajah, and to carry out reform of the judicial and legal systems. From 1930 to 1939, he served as Chief Justice. He compiled a volume of The Laws of Sarawak 1927-1935, which was published in 1936. He also wrote an account of the law and constitution of Sarawak, including the progress and development of the law since 1928 and suggestions for the future, but this remained unpublished (see MSS. Pac. s. 86/4 and MSS. Pac. s. 86/6, folder 6). Boyd was one of the five senior officers who retired from Sarawak in 1939, following a crisis precipitated by the dismissal of a District Officer (see MSS. Pac. s. 86/5). After his return to England, Boyd lived in London. He worked as an administrative officer at the Air Ministry until 1943. He was a member of the Westminster City Council from 1945 to 1965. He died on 1 Jan 1973.