Name
Richard Charles (poss Charles Edward) Cowland
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/10/1915
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
13262
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DARTMOOR CEMETERY, BECORDEL-BECOURT
I.C.15
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
North Mymms War Memorial, North Mymms War Shrine (now lost), St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, North Mymms, North Mymms Memorial Hall Memorial, Welham Green, Not on the Colney Heath memorials, We are not aware of any memorial in Roe Green
Pre War
Born in Roegreen (Roe Green), North Mymms.
The 1911 census shows him living with his Father Charles a Road Contractors Foreman and Mother Mary, Brother Ernest, Sisters Marjorie and Winifred in Blue Houses Roestock, also in that household was Uncle Edward who was also to die in the war, in the same Battalion. Richard was the eldest son of Charles and he enlisted in September 1914, aged approximately 16 years, possibly giving his name as Charles Edward as only a C. E. Cowland appears on the War Graves Commission listing with the same Parents names and living in Roestock, on the Roll of Honour he appears as Richard Charles.
Wartime Service
His Battalion was in the trenches around Albert and the war diary for that day says ‘Considerable improvement noticed in enemy's shooting. At 9.50 the enemy fired on Albert, we at once counter strafed on Fricourt. Observers and sentries reported two masked snipers east of aeroplane trench. These kept putting up dummies and firing from behind and between them. The dummies and snipers were dressed the same and could be easily seen through glasses. After 3 hours we scored a hit and the enemy ceased’. The North Mymms Roll of Honour says that Richard died whilst volunteering to go out and bring in a wounded comrade and was shot by a sniper whilst saving his comrades life, the kind of action for which the Victoria Cross is sometimes awarded, there however is no reference to this in the Battalion war diary.
Additional Information
On the War Memorial as Charles Edward and as Richard Charles on the War Shrine and the Roll of Honour.
Acknowledgments
Bedfordshire Regiment Web Site Mike Allen
