Boyd was baptized on 20 April 1710 at Richmond, Surrey and attended the University of Glasgow before entering the army in his father Ninian's profession of civilian storekeeper.

[1] In 1756 he served at the Siege of Minorca, and attempted to reach Admiral John Byng's fleet in an open boat with a message from the besieged garrison commander, William Blakeney.

[1] He subsequently became commissary general to the Marquess of Granby in Germany (1758 to 1759); he then rose through the officer ranks to be three-times Governor of Gibraltar (1776 to 1777, 1790 and 1790 to 1794).

[1] Boyd considered that his and General Sir William Green's work on the King's Bastion in Gibraltar was so important that he asked to be buried there.

[2] A memorial stone was placed within the King's Chapel but the marble stone in the King's Bastion read: Within the walls of this bastion are deposited the mortal remains of the late General Sir Robert Boyd, K.B., governor of this fortress, who died on 13 May 1794, aged 84 years.