2 Lieut. J.H. Bowles

[Michael Johnson]

I recently purchased a British War Medal with the above naming.

Due to defective searching, I at first thought it was a unique naming, and came up with:

1. Second Lieutenant John Handel Bowles, 25th Royal Fusiliers and East African Rifles

Another stab at it produced two more:

2. Second Lietenant John Harold Bowles, HAC, Tank Corps, M.G.C.

3. Second Lieutenant (later Lieutenant) John Hobbs Bowles, Royal Warwickshire Regiment (I thought at first I could rule him out based on the higher rank, but his MIC indicates that the lower rank was to be on his medal).

There is a fourth MIC, with no units shown, as in 1951 a BWM with this naming was found, but of course there was no way to tell whose.

The medal is in mint condition, but none of the three were casualties.

J.H. #1 was born in 1875, and resigned his commission for ill-health in 1918 (East Africa is definitley "No Country for Old Men")

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that someone here owns or knows of the medals to one or more of these. Maybe we can get the odds down to 50-50?

[DavoT]

Have you checked to see if any records have survived or have you just checked MIC's to date?

Cheers,

David