Bowen, Vincent: Service no. 53998 (Military Medal with Bar)

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Digitized Service Record

Source: Guelph Public Library (broken link)

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Family Search: When Sergeant Vincent Bowen was born in September 1892, in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, England, his father, William Bowen, was 20 and his mother, Annie Elizabeth Chell, was 22. He married Hilda Perkin on 2 January 1915, in Guelph, Wellington, Ontario, Canada. He immigrated to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada in 1909 and lived in Areley Kings, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom in 1901 and Wellington, Ontario, Canada in 1911. He registered for military service in 1914. In 1914, at the age of 22, his occupation is listed as carpet weaver. He died on 26 August 1918, in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, France, at the age of 25, and was buried in Achicourt, Pas-de-Calais, France.

Military Medal with Bar.

Summary of Service for Sergeant Vincent Bowen (Military Medal and Bar). Reg. No. 53998

Date	Event	Remarks
September 2, 1892	Born	Attestation papers indicate “Strouport”, Worcester, England.
1909	Emigrates to Canada	Emigrates to Canada with his family. At some point he claims on his attestation papers to have served 4 years with the 30th Rifles and a further 2 years with the Worcester Territorials.
October 26, 1914	Enlists	Enlists at Guelph, Ontario. He lists his trade as a carpet weaver and is single. He notes is prior military service in England and lists his next-of-kin as William Bowen. He assigned to “B” Company.   His reference to his service to the “30th Rifles” is actually the 30th Wellington Regiment.
December 11, 1914	Anti-Typhoid Inoculation
December 16, 1914	Vaccinations
December 23, 1914	Anti-Typhoid Inoculation
May 1915	Assigns Pay	Assigns pay to his wife, Hilda Bowen, 38 Duke Street, Guelph of $20.00 per month. There is a
July 6, 1916	Signs Will	Private Bowen bequeaths his entire estate to his wife, Hilda Bowen of 38 Duke Street, Guelph, Ontario. The will is witnessed by an Arthur Riley[i] and Captain G.H. Emery.[ii]
April 18, 1915	Leaves Canada	Sails from Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard the R.M.S. Grampian.
April 29, 1915	Arrives England	Arrives with the 18th Battalion at Avonmouth and is based at Shornecliffe for training.
May 6, 1915	Forfeits 1 Day Pay	Absent without leave.
September 14, 1915	Leaves for the Front	Battalion leaves for the Continent and arrives in Belgium.
June 11, 1916	Granted Leave	Granted 8 days leave.
August 8 – 12, 1916	No. 6 Canadian Field Ambulance	Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
August 12 – October 5, 1916	No. 2 Divisional Rest Station	Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
October 5 – 8, 1916	No. 4 Canadian Field Ambulance	S.W.R. Forefinger
April 27, 1917	No. 13 General Hospital, Boulogne, France	Develops trench too and assigned to hospital for treatment.
April 28, 1917	Transports to England	Transported to England aboard the H.S. St. Andrew.
April 29 to June 19, 1917	Evington Military Hospital	Inflammation of the Connective Tissue, Foot
June 19 – August 29, 1917	Ramsgate	Inflammation of the Connective Tissue, Foot
August 29 – September 14, 1917	M.G. No. 4, Epsom.	Inflammation of the Connective Tissue, Foot. The condition heals after spending 139 days in hospital.
September 14, 1917	Discharged to Canadian Convalescent Hospital, West Cote Park	Posted from Western Ontario Regimental Depot and Stuck of Strength to the 4th Reserve Battalion at Bramshott.
November 25, 1917	2nd Canadian Infantry Base Depot, Etaples France	Arrives from 4th Canadian Reserve Battalion to 2nd C.I.B.D.
December 2, 1917	Arrives 18th Battalion	In the field. Acheville, France.
January 3, 1918	4th Canadian Field Ambulance to 5th Canadian Field Ambulance	Ulcer, left foot.
January 9, 1918	Transferred to 12th Canadian Field Ambulance.
January 23, 1918	No. Canadian Casualty Clearing Station and then transferred to No. 1 Canadian General Hospital.	I.C.T. foot, slight.
February 22, 1918	No. 6 Convalescent Depot
February 23, 1918	No. 13 Convalescent Depot
March 6, 1918	2nd Canadian Infantry Base Depot, Etaples France	Discharged from No. 13 Convalescent Depot
April 1, 1918	Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp	Despatched to C.C.R.C. on way to rejoining Battalion.
April 4, 1918	Rejoined Unit	In the field. Rejoins Battalion in Neuville-St.-Vaast Sector. Battalion heavily engaged in patrol work and shelled by Germans.
August 8 and 9, 1918	Promoted	In an unusual case Bowen was promoted to Sergeant the day before he was “promoted” to Corporal. The service records show a promotion on August 8 where he was appointed Acting Sergeant with pay as Sgt. W.P. Munnings, reg. no. 767069 was wounded.   Then, on the next day, Bowen is promoted to Corporal as Corporal R. Redhead, reg. no. 53385 is invalided to England.   One explanation is that the Battalion needed an acting Sergeant but in order to promote Bowen they had to promote him to a Corporal so he could then be promoted to an acting sergeant. The dates in the service records reflect two dates when they should reflect that this occurred on one day. The letter dated August 24, 1918 conforming these promotions contained the notification of these promotion in Part II Order, No. 86, 13/9/18.
August 26, 1918	Killed in Action	Circumstances of Death records: “Killed in Action” During operations in front of ARRAS, this soldier was hit in the stomach and instantly killed, by an enemy rifle bullet.   The beginning of the Last 100 Days offensive. This day was a very bad day for the Battalion as it records that 30 other ranks where killed in action along with a further 120 o.r.s wounded.
March 13, 1919	Awarded the Military Medal[iii]	The London Gazette. Publication date: 21 January 1919. Supplement: 31142. Page 1238.
March 29, 1919	Awarded Bar to Military Medal	Per. London Gazette no. 31257
July 27, 1920	War Service Gratuity Issued	Received cheque no. G1895813 in the Amount of $100.00 issued to Mrs. Hilda Bowen, widow, residing at 10 Ontario Street, Guelph, Ontario.

[i] Most likely Private Arthur Riley, reg. no. 53962. Usually on this form the soldier includes his regimental number and unit but for some reason Private Riley gives an address in Manchester, from which he was born.

[ii] Note that the will in the service file is a facsimile of the original will, which is not in the file.

[iii] A note on citations. Some early Military Medals came with citations but as the war progressed and the awarding of Military Medals increased this award did not include a citation. The medals that would require citations are the “Victoria Cross (V.C.), the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.), the Military Cross (M.C.) and the Distinguished Conduct Medal (D.C.M.).”

GUELPH MEN KILLED.

GUELPH, Sept. 18. – Guelphites are figuring heavily these days in the casualty lists, and scarcely a day goes by without half a dozen homes in this city receiving official word from the war record office announcing the names of those wounded, and in some instances, of those who have made the supreme sacrifice. The list to-day includes the names of Lieut. Douglas Russell and Lance-Corp. Vincent Bowen, killed in action. The latter enlisted in 1914 with the 18th Battalion, and had been wounded several times. Lieut. Russell enlisted at Edmonton, Alta., over three years ago with the 49th Battalion, and has seen considerable service at the front. He was born and lived the greater part of his life in Guelph. He was educated in the public school and Collegiate Institute, and then went out to the West, where he joined the colors.

L/Corp Vincent Bowen….From the London Free Press September 1918.