Reginald Alwyn Bowden

Service number: 3018

Rank: Private

Unit: 20th Battalion (Infantry)

Service: Australian Army

Date of death: 5 May 1916 Death notice in SMH 3 June 1916, p16

Cause of death: Killed in action

Cemetery or memorial details: Brewery Orchard Cemetery, Bois-Grenier, France

War Grave Register notes:

BOWDEN, Pte. Reginald Alwyn, 3108. 20th Bn. Australian Inf. Killed in action 5th May 1916. Age 28. Son of George William Boyce Bowden and Mary Gordon Bowden; husband of Sylvia L. Bowden, of Daintrey St., Manly, New South Wales. IV. C. 25.

Source: AWM145 Roll of Honour cards, 1914-1918 War, Army

Mr Bowden was an electrician to trade. He was a member of North Steyne SLSC. He was rejected for service once on account of dental problems, but enlisted on 23 August 1915. His wife was living at Smith Street, Manly.

A death announcement appeared in SMH 1 June 1916. He left a widow and 3-year old daughter.

In 1917 Mrs Bowden was gifted a cottage in the Manly area built by the Voluntary Workers’ Association. The third cottage built by the Manly branch referred to above was handed over to Mrs Bowden on 16 June 1917. (Sydney Morning Herald 18 June 1917). She had a young daughter. It was the middle of the Manly Vale (Condamine Street) group of five. The Sunday Times published a photograph of the three completed cottages on 17 June 1917, p9