Name
William Charles Rowson
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/01/1919
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33079
Leicestershire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SOISSONS MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Shenley Village Memorial
Pre War
William Charles Rowson was born in 1889 at Shenley, Hertfordshire, the son of Benjamin and Alice Elizabeth Rowson (nee Ambler) and baptised on 8 April 1892 in Shenley. He was one of 13 children, but 3 died in infancy.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at London Road, Shenley where his father was working as a general labourer. They remained there in 1901 and 1911 at which time William's occupation was listed as gardener domestic and their address as Elm Cottage, London Road, Shenley.
Wartime Service
William enlisted on 8 December 1915 at Watford, initially joining the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 6262.
He qualified as a machine gunner at the machine gun school on 22 May 1916 and on 19 October 1916 was posted to 3rd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. On 29 November 1916 he left from Folkestone, joining the 8th Battalion in the field on 12 December.
On 5 May 1917 he received a gun shot wound to his left arm. After initial treatment at the 44th Field Ambulance and 43rd Casualty Clearing Station he was admitted to the hospital at Abbeville, France, finally being repatriated to England for treatment as the wound had turned septic, and was discharged on 6 March 1918.
On 31 March 1918 he was posted to 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment (a holding Battalion) and was eventually returned to 7th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment in France.
Following the 3rd Battle of the Aisne, on 27 May 1918, he was posted missing, and believed to have been taken as a prisoner of war. A local newspaper report of 31 August 1918 stated that his parents had been notified that their son, who had been missing, was a prisoner of war in Germany. Several months later he was presumed dead with the date given as 11 January 1919.*
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Soissons Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £16 and pay owing of £28 14s 2d. His mother received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
His father Benjamin enlisted in 1915, aged 50, as a private in the Army Service Corps Forage Department and was discharged in October 1916. He had previously served as a private in the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment, having served for six years in 1884.
*There is an absence of records to indicate whether he was indeed a prisoner of war or not. The Register of Soldiers' Effects gives date range of 11.10.18 and 11.1.19 when death was presumed, which suggests there was evidence he survived the battle in May. Surviving POWs were repatriated to UK by February 1919 and the presumed death date is therefore a nominal date.
Acknowledgments
Taff Williams, Brenda Palmer
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