Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War Somme operations M.C. group of four awarded to Major A. P. Bowen, Shropshire Light Infantry, who served as Brigade Major to the 114th Welsh Infantry Brigade during the attack on Mametz Wood on 10 July 1916

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately engraved ‘Capt. A. P. Bowen, Mametz Wood, July 10th 1916’; 1914-15 Star (Capt., Shrops. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (Major), mounted as worn, contained in original ‘1914-18 British Legion’ leather wallet, generally very fine (4) £800-1200

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

Aubrey Percival Bowen, who completed his education at Corpus Christi, Oxford, was commissioned into the Shropshire Light Infantry in 1901 and joined the 1st Battalion out in Poona in the same year. He subsequently served as Adjutant from 1908-11, and won in the latter year the Battalion’s Subaltern’s Cup for his victory on the Irish horse “Topthorn”. By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Bowen was serving as Adjutant of the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, but he went to France as a Staff Captain in the following year and was appointed a Brigade Major to the 114th Welsh Infantry Brigade in 1916.

In this latter capacity, he won his M.C. for the action at Mametz Wood on 10-11 July 1916, his Major-General Commanding having sent him over to the scene of battle at 7.30 a.m. to re-organise the attack. Bowen reported back just over two hours later, confirming that the first objective had been taken and was firmly held, and that the line was going to advance. Undoubtedly, too, he returned to Mametz Wood that afternoon, when his C.O. obtained permission to personally attend the front and take immediate command. And by late afternoon the Welshmen of 114th Infantry Brigade had sufficiently consolidated their positions in readiness to hand over to 115th Infantry Brigade in the early hours of the 11th. But the cost had been high, a total of 48 officers and 1240 other ranks appearing on the immediate post-battle casualty return.

Bowen remained a regular soldier after the War, one of his final postings being that of C.O. of the K.S.L.I’s depot from 1924-27. Thereafter, he dedicated himself to such causes as the British Legion, and achieved much success in finding employment for ex-servicemen in Shropshire. He also served as an Area Recruiting Officer during the 1939-45 War. The Major, a keen member of the South Shropshire Hunt and the old Cresselly Hunt, died in September 1953.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including an old typed copy of the recipient’s original “Operation Order” for 114th Infantry Brigade, marked ‘Copy / Secret’ and dated 9 July 1916, 2pp. (‘The 38th Division will attack Mametz Wood tomorrow with a view to capturing the whole of it ...’); together with a similar typed agenda of all the messages frantically exchanged as the attack developed, 5pp., and the Brigadier-General Commanding’s official report on the action, 4pp. (‘ ... I am of opinion that all ranks behaved with great dash and gallantry in the face of considerable fire as shown by the casualty list. The number of enemy dead in the East portion of the wood was very great especially near the border ...’); a copy of A Scottish Tour, edited by Lady Haig, with handwritten inscription, ‘With grateful thanks for your kind hospitality, a few of my husband’s early speeches, Dorothy Haig, Oct. 16. 1935’, and related typed letter dated ‘Oct. 17’, in which Lady Haig expresses further thanks for Bowen’s work in raising funds for the British Legion and her poppy factory; and copies of the K.S.L.I. Regimental Journal, August 1929 and October 1953, the latter with obituary notice.

Also sold with the recipient’s 1897 Infantry Pattern (V.R. Cypher) Sword, replated overall and with replacement tan leather hand grip; Sam Browne belt; field compass, W.D. issue, Verner’s pattern VIII, supplied by Hobson & Sons, London, 1914, and initialled ‘A.P.B.’; and a paper-weight constructed from a German nose cone and British shell base, the former marked ‘Dopp. Z. 92 Sp. 15’, and the latter dated 1942.

Also see Lot 1600 for his K.S.L.I. helmet and Lot 1316 for his son’s Korea War M.C. and related awards.