Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain W. Bowra, Essex Regiment, later 2/10th Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney Rifles)

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, South Africa 1901 (Capt. W. Bowra. 1/Essex Rgt.) engraved naming; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. W. Bowra) minor edge nicks, nearly extremely fine (3) £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from an Africa Collection.

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Dix Noonan Webb, May 2018 (Q.S.A. only, subsequently reunited).

Walter Bowra was commissioned second lieutenant in the 4th Volunteer Battalion, Essex Regiment, in December 1896, and advanced to lieutenant in May 1898. He served with the Volunteer Company, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment in South Africa during the Boer War, and was promoted captain in June 1900. His service in South Africa is reflected upon in The Shoreditch Observer, 16 February 1901:

‘A letter sent home by a Volunteer in the 4th V.B. Essex Regiment, serving in South Africa, has given much satisfaction to Major Bowra and his family, of Essex Lodge, Meynall Road, South Hackney. We extract the following paragraphs, relating to certain Hackney men and to Major Bowra’s son, Lieut. Bowra who was sent out more than a year ago with the Hackney Volunteer section of the Essex Regiment:- We also especially mention Lieut. Bowra, who left Hackney in charge of our section. He has acted up to what he said at our farewell concert at the Drill Hall. I have known him to carry a man’s rifle and haversack as well as his own on the march when the man had sore feet, and was not hardly able to get along. He has bought cigarettes when we had neither tobacco nor money. He also foraged around all the farms and got us chickens for our Christmas dinners. I have never known him to make a man prisoner during the campaign, and I can assure you that his name will be ever remembered by every man who has been under his command.’

Bowra was presented with a marble clock, with an inscription from his men, at a dinner and presentation ceremony for the Hackney Volunteers held by the Mayor of Hackney at the town hall. The proceedings, speeches and responses, were recorded in the Hackney & Kingsland Gazette of 15 July 1901.

Bowra resigned his commission in March 1903, and emigrated to Canada to become a farmer there in the same year. He re-engaged for service during the Great War as a temporary captain in the 2/10th Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney Rifles) in May 1915. His medals were issued to his address ‘1116 Willow Avenue, Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Sold with copied research.