Name
Charles Valentine Cowler
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/04/1918
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
21475
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RAMLEH WAR CEMETERY
E. 50.
Israel and Palestine (including Gaza)
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Thundridge War Memorial, St Johns Church, High Cross, Not on the Colliers End memorial
Pre War
Born in 1889 in Colliers End, Herts. Son of Lewis James and Sarah Elizabeth Cowler. He was Baptised on the 5th May 1889 in High Cross, Herts. Charles Married Jessie Barnard in the third quarter of 1914 in the Registration District of Onger, Essex. He was a resident of Buckhurst Hill, Essex. The 1891 Census records Charles aged 2 living with his Parents, 3 Brothers and Sister in Colliers End. His father working as an agricultural Labourer. Then in 1901 as living with his father, step mother, brothers, sisters, step brothers and step sisters in High Cross, Herts. and in 1911, then aged 21 as a baker’s rounds man, living with his employer a baker and confectioner at 1 Victoria Terrace, Queen’s Road, Buckhurst Hill, Essex.
In 1914 he married Jessie Barnard in Chipping Ongar and in 1915 they had a daughter Ruth. Charles enlisted in Warley, Essex.
Wartime Service
He served with his Battalion in Egypt and Palestine. An extract from the Battalion War Diary reads: “14th April 1918, 0425 Hrs, Normal except when enemy put down shrapnel and H. E. barrage over same area previously shelled. Casualties 1 Killed, 1 Wounded. (Comment Private 21475 Charles Cowler of Buckhurst Hill in Essex killed in the trench)”.
Additional Information
His personal inscription on the headstone reads: “Son of Mr & Mrs Lewis Cowler, Of High Cross, Ware, Herts. Husband of Jessie Cowler, of Trust House, Chipping Onger, Essex”.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, Pat Bird
