Pte Leslie C Bowman 1/6 Hants died 27.1.18

[Guest Pete Wood]

Name: BOWMAN

Initials: L C

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Private

Regiment: Hampshire Regiment

Unit Text: 1st/6th Bn.

Date of Death: 27/01/1918

Service No: 280448

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: XII. J. 12.

Cemetery: BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY

SDGW says: Born in Locksheath, Enlisted in Swanwick, Died in Mespotamia

In 1914, Baghdad was the headquarters of the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia. It was the ultimate objective of the Indian Expeditionary Force 'D' and the goal of the force besieged and captured at Kut in 1916. The city finally fell in March 1917, but the position was not fully consolidated until the end of April. Nevertheless, it had by that time become the Expeditionary Force's advanced base, with two stationary hospitals and three casualty clearing stations. The North Gate Cemetery was begun In April 1917 and has been greatly enlarged since the end of the First World War by graves brought in from other burial grounds in Baghdad and northern Iraq, and from battlefields and cemeteries in Anatolia where Commonwealth prisoners of war were buried by the Turks. At present, 4,142 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War are commemorated by name in the cemetery, many of them on special memorials. Unidentified burials from this period number 2,729. The cemetery also contains the grave of Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Maude, Commander-in-Chief of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, who died at Baghdad in November 1917 and the memorial to the 13th Division which he commanded. A memorial to the 6th Battalion Loyal (North Lancashire) Regiment was brought into the cemetery from the banks of the Diyala River in 1947.

From the Long, Long Trail

1/6th (Duke of Connaught's Own) Battalion

August 1914 : in Portsmouth. Bn was Army Troops attached to Wessex Division, later attached to Devon and Cornwall Brigade. 9 October 1914 : sailed for India, landing Karachi 11 November 1914. 16 September 1917 : landed at Basra , and remained in Mesopotamia for the rest of the war, attached to 52nd Brigade, 17th Indian Division.

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Interestingly Pte Bowman was in 'A' Coy and his death is mentioned in the diary of 280937 Pte J A Justice 1/6th Bn Hamps Regt, which I bought at auction in 2001 in addition to his ID tag...............small world isn't it

Ian