1/2nd Scottish Horse att Imperial Camel Corps

[sheilmar]

My cousin, Lt Robert Rowan was killed on 22/8/1918 in Palestine. He was with the 1/2nd Scottish Horse and later The Imperial Camel Corps.

One newspaper report  suggests it was an accident but he died of his wounds. Does anyone have any information on what led to his death, please? His two brothers, John & Gilbert  were awarded  MCs I believe.

sheilmar 

Edited 28 July , 2018 by sheilmar
to add something

[Guest]

Mate,

 

My details on Lt Rowan are;

 

Rowan    Robert        Lt    possibly 26 MG Sqn (265 MG Co) 10-16 to 7Co (date?) shown as Intell officer HQ/ICC Bde during Sena raid 8-17 shown 7Co on patrol with Lt Flannery and Braine & 51 men to Maghara 7-18 shown 7Co to 2Bn HQ with Buxton's Force to TEL 7-18 murdered reported accidently (murdered at a water hole) killed by arab (TELs bodyguard) at (Azrak) Wadi Rumm buried Ramleh War Cemetery Palestine Ex 1/2 Scottish Horse age 26 brothers John & Gilbert

British Camel Corps Soldiers there say that he was murdered by the Arab guard to TEL in a dispute over the fish.

 

TEL wanted to cover it up by saying it was an accident, but British soldiers say different?

 

Roy Moore wrote some details on this in his assocition (ICC) newsletters which I have a number, being an Ex member (the assoc was disbanded after Rory's death in the 80's.)

 

I am still not sure on when Bob Rowan joined the ICC?

 

Many Ex Scottish Horse soldiers transfered over in Oct 1916 to the 26 MG Sqn but I don't know if Bob was one of these or he came over later?

 

My first record of him is Bde Intell officer August 1917 (as above) and later in the 7th Company but I am unsure when he joined that company?

 

I record some details for you;

 

4-7-16   new 7Co under Capt Gregorey (1st (Highland Yeomanry) Mtd Bde - 1/1 Scottish Horse, 1/1 Ayrshire, 1/1 Lanark, 1/1 Fife & Forfar, 1/1 & 1/2 Lovat Scouts and Lothians Yeo) arrived ICC depot

11-9-16  7Co under Capt Gregory (5 officers 129 men 134 camels) left ICC depot to Canal to join 1st Camel Bn  (2ic Orchardson- Deas - Newsam - other not confirmed)

17-2-17   shown MG Sect (148 camels) , RE Sect (14 camels) , Sig Sect (10 camels) , MVS (52 camels) mustered at Abbassia

20-3-17  26 MG Sqn (265 MG Co) under Maj Millar (6 officers 120 men 8xVickers MGs) arrived ICC bde

24-7-18  2Bn ICC (7Co 10Co) under Maj Buxton moved from Kubri to join (TEL) Lawrence's Arab forces while 8Co & 9Co remained on the Canal between Gamiel to Ferry post

31-7-18  2Bn ICC (-) arrived Akaba

Aug 1918

8-8-18 at Battle at Mudawarra

2Bn ICC (7Co 10Co) with TEL's Arabs

 

8-18   Capt Tod replaced Capt Houghton to T/CO 2Bn HQ (rear Dtls) & 6Co patrols out to Qur el Beid

8-18   abortive raid to Amman by 2Bn ICC after Mudawarra and TEL's Arabs then rtn Wadi Rumm (Azrak)

22-8-18  Lt Rowan murdered at the Azrak water hole by TELs arab bodyguard

 Sept 1918

 shown 2Bn ICC returned from Hejaz via Petra during September 1918 to Ismailia

 

Hope this helps any details you can give on his move to the ICC would be of interest

 

Cheers

 

S.B

Edited 29 July , 2018 by stevebecker

[sheilmar]

Wow! This is amazing, Steve. Thank you so much. Is it ok if I add this to my Tribal Pages family tree where I came across him?

My information has come from my research into family so may not be as detailed as you have already got. However, I will do  my best to find out for you,

I wonder how his family felt about Lawrence's cover-up.

Regards

sheilmar

[sheilmar]

This is father, Henry Rowan with his three soldier sons,

[sheilmar]

I think it is Robert on the left as we look at the photo, John, Father and presumably, Gilbert.

[sheilmar]

Just sending these as I find them Steve,

[Derek Black]

23 hours ago, stevebecker said:

I am still not sure on when Bob Rowan joined the ICC?

 

Many Ex Scottish Horse soldiers transfered over in Oct 1916 to the 26 MG Sqn but I don't know if Bob was one of these or he came over later?

 

My first record of him is Bde Intell officer August 1917 (as above) and later in the 7th Company but I am unsure when he joined that company?

Fife Free Press & Kirkcaldy Guardian

"Mr H. Rowan, Foulford House, Cowdenbeath has received intimation that his fifth son Lieut. Robert Rowan, Imperial Camel Corps, has been accidentaly killed while serving in Palestine. He enlisted in the Scottish Horse as a Private in August, 1914, and rose from the ranks. He went to Gallipoli in September, 1915, and was through the evacuation. On going to Egypt after Gallipoli he was transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps, and there he got his second star in early 1916."

[Guest]

Mate,

 

Thanks Derek nice one.

 

IF TEL's book and or the movie is to be believed, (which many don't agree with most of his book/accounts) then TEL's bodyguard were known to be made up of criminals, weather that related to the death of Bob Rowan is unknown?

 

Cheers

 

S.B

Edited 30 July , 2018 by stevebecker

[sheilmar]

Does this help at all?

[charlie962]

Might there be something in his service file at Nat Archives ?

 

WO 374/59372

Lieutenant Robert ROWAN.

2nd Scottish Horse.

 

Charlie

[charlie962]

Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr  says this:

 

       The following day, 22 August, the ICC arrived at Azraq, but the
oasis in midsummer was not as hospitable as Lawrence remembered it.
Grey, green-eyed flies with a bite ‘like the sharp end of a drawing
pin’ plagued men and camels alike.  ‘Our stay was poisoned by the
grey flies, and then ruined by a tragic accident,’ remembered
Lawrence, referring to the moment when Robert Rowan, a young
Scottish intelligence officer attached to the ICC, was shot dead.
Although his death was reported as an accident which happened when
an Arab dropped his loaded rifle while shooting fish, Moore did not
agree. ‘I was close to Rowan at the time and saw and heard him raise
his sjambok and curse them [the Bedu] in what we used to call Cairo
Arabic. The Arabs muttered and slunk away and a little later there was
a shot from the rim of the crowd which killed him instantly,’ Moore
claimed later, believing that the real circumstances were covered up
for reasons of political expediency.

 

Charlie

 

Edited 30 July , 2018 by charlie962

[Guest]

Mate,

 

Yes I found an account of this by Rory Moore from his ICC Newsletter No 68 dated Autumn 1988

 

"When we were with Lawrence (TEL), the only incident was when one of Lawrence's arab bodyguard shot and killed our Lt Rowan at Azrak.

 

The Arabs as usual were chivvying our chaps of a watering point, and I agree Rowan raised his szjambok, cursing them in Cairo Arabic. A minute later a shot rang out from the bunch of Arabs and Rowan fell, shot through the heart.

 

In Seven Pillars, Lawrence wrote that the Arabs rifle fell while shooting fish in the pool. Dropping a rifle does not discharge it. Rowan was on a plinth around the cistern so the shot from the ground would not have the trajectory to rise about five feet.

 

Rowan was popular and we had difficulty in stopping his Scots from sailing unto the Arabs with Mills bombs. I was along side Rowan and saw everything."

 

Cheers

 

S.B