Despite extensive research we have been unable to trace a Henry Ince Webb-Bowen who played for the London Welsh Rugby Club, who was born in 1878 and who died in 1915 in WW1. We believe whoever commissioned and carved the memorial plaque on the Sports Ground Pavilion in Old Deer Park, 187 Kew Road, Richmond, TW9 2BB, got his first name wrong. It should be Hugh Ince Webb-Bowen.
Hugh Ince Webb-Bowen was born on 12 February 1878 in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the eldest of the four children of Thomas Ince Webb-Bowen (1839-1906) and his second wife Ellen Webb-Bowen née Brenchley (1840-1895). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1878 in the Pembroke registration district, Pembrokeshire. On 6 March 1878 he was baptised in St Mary's Church, Tenby, where in the baptismal register the family are shown as living at Lexden Terrace, Tenby. His father was described as a gentleman.
His three siblings were: Tom Ince Webb-Bowen (1879-1956; Alexandra Ellen Ince Webb-Bowen (1880-1880) and William Ince Webb-Bowen (1882-1945).
In the 1881 census he was shown as aged 3 years and lodging at 9 Deer Park, Tenby, with his mother, his brother Tom Ince Webb-Bowen, his two half-sisters: Mary Grace Josephine Webb-Bowen (1860-1932) and Nina Newton Webb-Bowen (1861-1943). On the night of the 1881 census, his father, who was the Chief Constable of Pembrokeshire Police, was away and lodging in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.
He was educated at the Grammar School Haverfordwest. On leaving school be passed the Preliminary Law examination and was articled to a Mr James Price, and on his death to a Mr Herbert Price. He passed his final examination and was admitted a solicitor in 1899. He also played rugby union football for the London Welsh Rugby Football Club.
On the outbreak of the Second Boer War, he joined the 3rd Battalion of Royal Welsh Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant and was subsequently drafted to the 1st Battalion in South Africa in August 1900 where he served during the whole of the remainder of the war. He was present in the operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, to September 1901 including the action at Frederiksted from 17 to 25 October 1900. From September 1901 to 31 May 1902 he was in the Orange River Colony. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps: Cape Colony; Orange Free State and Transvaal and the King's South Africa Medal with both the 1901 and 1902 clasps. He was also mentioned in despatches for a distinguished act of valour in rescuing wounded during a retirement before the enemy at close quarters and received a Royal Humane Society Medal for saving a man from drowning in a river.
At the end of the war he was seconded to 'A' Division, South African Constabulary where he remained for 3 years and then rejoined his regiment in India as a Lieutenant on 7 September 1904 serving as their Adjutant from 7 November 1907. On 2 April 1911, the night of the 1911 census, he was listed as a Lieutenant on board the troopship HMT Rewa on its way to India where he was stationed in Roberts Barracks, Quetta (now Pakistan). On 23 November 1911 he was transferred to the Head Quarter's Staff of the British Egyptian Army and was stationed at Khartoum where he held the post of Deputy Assistant Adjutant General.
On 18 July 1914 he married Evelyn Flora Abercromby McDougal (1889-1964) at Holy Trinity Brompton Church, Brompton Road, London, SW7, where in the marriage register he is shown as aged 36 years, a bachelor and a Captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, giving his address as The Rembrandt Hotel, South Kensington, London, whilst his wife is shown as aged 25 years, a spinster living at 21 Rutland Court, London, SW, the daughter of the late Thomas McDougal (1842-1898), a paper-maker. He was on his honeymoon in England when WW1 broke out and he was recalled to his post in Khartoum where he was joined by his wife.
His regiment was assigned to take part in the Gallipoli campaign and he died of wounds on active service, aged 37 years, on 24 May 1915 on the island of Tenedos in the north-eastern part of the Aegean Sea. His body was buried in Row B, Grave 2 in the Lancashire Landing Cemetery, İsmetpaşa, İstiklal Cd. No:15, 17900 Seddülbahir/Eceabat/Çanakkale, Türkey.
Probate records confirm that his UK address had been 21 Rutland Court, Middlesex (now Greater London) and that when administration was granted to his widow on 20 September 1917 his effects totalled £2,323-11s-0d. On 21 November 1917 his army effects totalling £155-13s-10d were also sent to his widow. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is also commemorated on the Pembroke County war memorial, Picton Place, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on the memorial to the men of Haverfordwest Town outside the Chapel of Withybush Hospital, Fishguard Road, Haverfordwest SA61 2PZ, on the St Martin's Church war memorial, Church Street, Haverfordwest, SA61 2EA, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the A Street Near You website and on page 238 of the Welsh National Book of Remembrance 1928.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
