[1] Boylen was born in the London suburb of Kensington, but his family migrated to Western Australia in 1903 and he was raised in Kalgoorlie–Boulder.
He was educated at Christian Brothers College, Kalgoorlie and passed his final pharmacy examinations in 1926.
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Boylen was elected to the Legislative Council at a by-election on 1 February 1947 following the death of Liberal MLC James Cornell.
[11][12][13] An anti-communist, he claimed in 1949 that the Communist Party of Australia were "the tools of a foreign organisation" and that "their leaders had proved their disloyalty to this country" while blocking their access to Boulder council facilities.
[14] Following a major electoral redistribution, he was easily re-elected for a full-term for South-East Province in 1950, with a more than two-to-one margin over his Liberal opponent.