Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The campaign group of six awarded to Captain S. V. Bowden, Royal Artillery, late Cape Police, who took part in the Jameson Raid in 1896

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 1 clasp, Bechuanaland (305 Pte. S. V. Bowden., C. Pol.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Defence of Kimberley, Orange Free State (Lieut: S. V. Bowden, Cap Police) engraved naming; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lieut: S. V. Bowden. C.P. Dist. I.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. S. V. Bowden.) edge of BWM rubbed prior to naming; Defence Medal, good very fine and better (6) £1,600-£2,000

Provenance: Anglo-Boer War Anniversary Sale, Spink, October 1999; Strong Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, May 2011

Sydney Vincent Bowden was born in Dumfries in January 1871 and was educated at Fettes, Edinburgh. Emigrating to South Africa, he enlisted in the Cape Mounted Rifles as a Private in September 1889. Discharged in September 1894, he next enlisted in the Bechuanaland Border Police and, in mid-December 1895, as a Trooper in ‘K’ Troop of the British South Africa Company Police, in which capacity he was present in the Jameson Raid, taking part in the action at Vlakplaats Farm on 1 January 1896, prior to being taken prisoner by the Boers on the following day.

In common with many of his fellow raiders, Bowden was repatriated to England in the Harlech Castle, but he returned to South Africa in the following year, where he enlisted in the Cape Police at Kimberley and went on to serve in the Bechuanaland rebellion. He saw further service during the Boer War, including at the defence of Kimberley, in which period he was appointed a Lieutenant in District No. 1. Qualifying as an Inspector in 1904, and as a Chief Constable in 1908, he was dismissed from the service in July 1911 on being found guilty of disrespect to the Magistrate of Kenhardt.

Having then returned to England, Bowden applied for a commission in the British Expeditionary Force, and was appointed a Second Lieutenant in 2/4th Howitzer Battery, 1st West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (Territorials) in March 1915. Appointed an Acting Captain at the end of the same year, he joined a Trench Mortar Battery in 62nd Division on the Western Front in early 1916 and, with the exception of a period of attachment to 3 Corps in 1917, appears to have served in that capacity until the end of the War. For his services during the Great War he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 23 December 1918). He was placed on the Reserve of Officers List in December 1919.

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