Alfred Richard Bowyer was born on the 26 April 1893 in Marylebone, one of the eight children of James Bowyer (1866-1942) and Frances Bowyer née Parnell (1868-1945). He was baptised on 28 May 1893 at St Mary's Church, Bryanston Square, Marylebone. The baptismal register shows the family living at 20 Suffolk Place, Marylebone and that his father was a carman.
In the 1901 census he was shown living at 17 Mitcham Street, Marylebone, with his parents, and brothers James William Bowyer (1891-1978) and Ernest Thomas Bowyer (1897-1916) who was also to die in WW1 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. (Mitcham Street no longer exists having been swept away in the 1960's to facilitate the construction of the Marylebone Flyover at Edgware Road).
According to Postal Service Appointment Books he was appointed as an assistant postman in the London Postal Service in June 1910. The 1911 census shows him as a telegraph messenger, still living at 17 Mitcham Street with his parents and five siblings.
He joined the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), service number 2895, as a Rifleman and arrived in France on the 18th March 1915. At some point he transferred as a Private to the 13th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Kensington), service number 7609 which in 1917 was changed to 493565. He died of wounds, aged 23 years, on the 10th April 1917 at No.43 Casualty Clearing Station, Warlencourt, France and is buried in Plot 8, Row B, Grave 10 at Warlincourt-Halte British Cemetery, La Frm de Saternault, Saulty, France.
On 14 June 1917 his army effects totalling £7-13s-7d were sent to his mother at 17 Mitcham Street and she was also granted administration with a will of his estate on 11 September 1917 in which his effects totalled £107-8s-0d. On 6 November 1919 she was a sent his £11-10s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as BOWYER. E. R. on the Western Postal District war memorial now located in Mount Pleasant, London, EC1. He is also commemorated on page 41 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance Memorial Book, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
