Private, number 38910 in the Gloucester Regiment. The handwritten notice to him on the Blackheath War Memorial transcribes it as 'Glouetshire'. Killed in action in France aged 16.
We requested our colleague Andrew Behan to research the Cownden surnames on the war memorial. He states that Sidney Albert Cownden was born on 27 October 1898, one of the fifteen children of Charles Henry Cownden (1860-1953) and Emma Cownden née Sylvester (1863-1923). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1898 in the Greenwich registration district.
In the 1901 census he is shown as living at 41 Idenden Cottages, East Greenwich, with his parents and five siblings: Charles Henry Cownden (1888-1937), William John Cownden (1891-1949), Alexander Sylvester Cownden (1892-1916), Elizabeth Florence May Cownden (1894-1986) and Henry Charles Cownden (1900-1891). His father was described as a River Thames lighterman.
On 15 June 1905 both he and his younger brother, Albert Ernest Cownden (1905-1940), were baptised in the parish church of St Andrew and St Michael, Greenwich, where the baptismal registers show the family still living at 41 Idenden Cottages, East Greenwich and that their father was a lighterman.
His name does not appear on his family's 1911 census return that was taken on the night of 2 April 1911 because on 9 February 1911 he was admitted into the Dreadnaught Seaman's Hospital, Greenwich, suffering from a prepatellar abscess and was not discharged until it was cured on 20 April 1911. The hospital admission records confirm he was still residing at 41 Idenden Cottages.
He enlisted in Greenwich as a Private in the 12th (Service) Battalion, (Bristol's Own), The Gloucestershire Regiment, service number 38910, and was killed in action, aged 19 years, on 30 October 1917 in Belgium. As he has no known grave he is listed on Stone No.73 on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Vijfwegestraat, 8980 Zonnebeke, Belgium.
On 18 March 1918 his army effects totalling £3-3s-0d were sent to his father who also received his £3-0s-0d war gratuity that was despatched on 4 December 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal. He is also commemorated in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and the London WW1 Memorial website.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
