Pte 34611 Edward Bowers

• Age: 27
• From: Warrington, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

Edward Bowers birth was registered in the first quarter of 1889 and he was the son of John Bowers and his wife Mary Ann (nee Taylor) who married in Warrington in 1871. His older siblings found on censuses are George, Walter, and Maggie, and younger brother Arthur.

At the time of the 1891 census the family is living at 94 Priestley Street in Warrington, where his father is a 40 year old greengrocer who was born in Grappenhall, Cheshire, his mother is 41 years of age and was born in Kendal.  They have four children in the household; George F. is aged 15 and is a bill poster, Walter is 12 and at school as is Maggie aged 7, Edward is 2 years old. Also in the household is his widowed grandfather John Bowers aged 69, living on his own means.

On the 1901 census they are at the same address. His father is 50, a shopkeeper (greengrocer) working on his own account at home. His mother is 52 years old. There are three children in the household; Maggie is 17, no occupation listed, Edward is 12, and Arthur 8 years old.

Edward was mentioned in the Warrington Examiner on 14th January 1905 as receiving a sholarship certificate and certificate in Arithmatic.

The 1911 Census shows the family still living at 94 Priestley Street in Warrington. His father is aged 60 and still a shopkeeper (green grocer), his mother is 62 years of age. They have been married for 39 years and have had eight children, four of whom have survived. Twop children are still in the household; Edward is a 22 year old shop assistant in a furnishing store and Arthur aged 18 is also a shop assistant in a grocer's shop, presumably his father's business. 

His mother died in February 1915 aged 66, and his father died in December that year aged 65, both buried in Warrington Cemetery.

Edward enlisted in Warrington and went overseas with the 4th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that Edward had served for about one year when he was killed, volunteering in the summer of 1915, and went overseas some time in 1916. At some point he was posted to the 17th Battalion of The The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 34611 when he was killed in action on the 30^th July 1916, aged 21, whilst fighting in the battle for the village of Guillemont during the Somme offensive.

17th Battalion Diary 30th July 1916

The Battalion was in support to 19 & 20 Battalions K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions) in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55th Division during the early hours of the 31st July. 

The events of 30th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.    

He was reported Wounded on 26th August 1916 in the St. Helens Examiner and Runcorn Examiner - 

“Stated last week to have been reported missing, Private Edward Bowers, who resided with his sister, Mrs. Arthur Sinclair, in Longdin Street, Latchford, is now reported “wounded” by the War Office. No other information is to hand, however.”

Edward’s name was also included among the Wounded in the Liverpool newspapers on 11th September 1916.

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01^st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

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