Maurice Grant Boydell was born on 23 April 1908 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South Wales to Sydney Grant Boydell and Katharine Frances Downing Gill. He had three siblings: Robert, Noreen and Eleanor. By 1930 Boydell was living in the Rose Bay area of Sydney, New South Wales and working as a clerk. He later moved to Queensland.

On 8 November 1939, Boydell married Jean Flower Nicholson in Queensland. He volunteered with the Royal Australian Artillery in the same year, and enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces at Redbank, Queensland on 1 April 1940. Boydell was posted to the 1 Anti-Tank Regiment, 6 Division. He trained in Australia and the United Kingdom before serving in the Middle East and Greece, where he was captured in May 1941. He was recovered from a German prisoner of war camp around April 1945. During this time, on 7 March 1943, Jean enlisted with the Australian Army and served at 116 Australian General Hospital. Boydell returned to Australia shortly after his recovery and was discharged on 31 July 1945.

In the years after the war, Boydell and Jean had three children, and he returned to work as a shipping clerk. They moved several times, living in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, before settling in Nerang, Queensland. Maurice Grant Boydell died aged 77 on 19 July 1985 at New South Wales.