George Bowhay: The
Boer War and WWI
In terms of campaign medals
awarded, George Bowhay received
the largest number of anyone who
was a South Milton resident after
the Armistice had been declared.
He was not only a veteran of the
First World War but had also seen
action in the second Boer War in
South Africa. In total he was the recipient of ten medals.
He was born George Edward
Bowhay at Ford, Devonport, in
1871, and became a soldier at the
age of 18. From that time his life
was one of service to, first, Queen
and then King and Country.
In the years leading up to the
outbreak of the First World War,
when he was an Army pensioner
and living in South Milton after the
death of his first wife, he must
have known that, with war clouds
gathering, there would be a need
for men with his experience of
front line action.
So, on October 8, 1914, at the
age of 43, he took the oath at
The Queen’s South Africa Medal, with
three clasps. George Bowhay received a
medal like this after serving in the second
Boer War. He received the Cape Colony
and Transvaal clasps, as well as one
marking his involvement in the Laing’s
Nek operation
Kingsbridge and enlisted again,
initially for one year but with an
undertaking that he would stay on
if the war lasted for more than 12
months.
George Bowhay was eventually
demobilised on February 28, 1919,
and joined the Army Reserve. In
the following year he married
again — his bride was the widow
of Harold Brinkworth, who had
fallen in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 and whose name is
recorded on South Milton War Memorial. Harriet Ellen Brinkworth
(nee Ingram) had two sons, and her
third boy was born after her marriage to George Bowhay.
George died of cancer in 1940,
and, if Harriet had not suffered
enough, she was to lose their son,
William George, in the Second
World War — South Milton’s only
fatality in that conflict.
George Edward Bowhay was
one of 12 children, four of whom
died young. His father William,
born at Revelstoke in 1842, was an
assistant boilermaker in the Royal
Navy dockyard at Devonport. His
mother, Annie, was born in Dartmouth in 1844. George was the
third child, and his boyhood was
spent in Devonport and East Stonehouse, where he went to school.
He joined the Royal Artillery
(No 78258) at Crown Hill Fort on
March 10, 1890, at the age of 18
years and five months. He was 5ft
10in tall and weighed less than
10st. He enlisted as a gunner and
was discharged 21 years later as a
company sergeant major. Not that
he intended to stay in that long —
he twice extended his service engagement, first to 12 years and then
for a further nine years, which
guaranteed him a pension of three
shillings (15p) a day for the rest of
his life.
After two years stationed in
Plymouth, George, then a bombardier, was posted to St Helena, the
remote volcanic island in the Atlantic Ocean, for more than five years,
during which time he was promoted to corporal.
He became a sergeant when
again based in Plymouth. His involvement in the second Boer War
began when his unit left for South
Africa on February 3, 1900. He was
engaged in the conflict for two
years and five days before being
posted to the Indian Ocean island
of Mauritius, where he was to remain for five years.
Sergeant Bowhay’s time in
South Africa was eventful and he
was awarded the Queen’s South
Africa Medal with three clasps for
the action he saw at Cape Colony,
Transvaal and Laing’s Nek.
The Cape Colony clasp was
awarded to all troops at any time
between October 11, 1899, and May
31, 1902, who had not received a
clasp for a specific action in the
Cape Colony.
Similarly, the Transvaal clasp
was given to troops at any time between May 24, 1900, and May 31,
1902, who had not received a clasp
for a specific action in that skirmish, and the Laing’s Nek clasp
went to all troops of the Natal Field
Force employed in the operations
north of a line through Newcastle
between June 2-9, 1900.
During his time in South Africa
he was re-engaged in order to extend his service to 21 years. Promotion to company sergeant major
followed when in Mauritius. This
was on May 19, 1903, but in a little
under two months he was struck
down with a stomach abscess,
The Queen’s and the King’s South Africa
Medals, with clasps. The King’s Medal
was struck when Edward VII ascended to
the throne following the death of his
mother, Queen Victoria
which necessitated a period of 130
days in hospital.
George Bowhay was discharged
on March 9, 1911, with his character described as ‘exemplary’. Of his
three shillings a day pension for
the remainder of his life, sixpence
(2.5p) was for the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (above)
on November 29, 1900.
This was when he was in South
Africa, as was the notice in the
London Gazette on September 10,
1901, that he had been mentioned
in despatches for ‘gallant conduct
in the field’ in the face of the enemy.
There was also the award of the
King’s Medal and clasp 1901 and
1902, so named in the post-Victoria
period when King Edward VII had
ascended the throne, and a medal
for long service and good conduct
(with gratuity) on April 25, 1908.
Before he left the service,
George Bowhay married Elizabeth
A Heavy Battery of the RGA tows its 60-pounder guns in Northern France
Ann Gill, who was born at Hope
Cove, at Malborough on August 25,
1907, and they lived at Silver Hill,
Malborough. Upon his discharge,
they moved to Rock Cottage (then
sometimes known as Rock Villa) in
Sutton, and in the national census
taken in April 1911 he was listed as
a Royal Garrison Artillery pensioner.
His wife was nine years his senior, and sadly their time together
was short, for Elizabeth died early
in 1912, aged 49. Whether this
event triggered George into thinking of rejoining the army is not
known, but on October 8, 1914, he
again took the oath, this time in
Kingsbridge, and re-enlisted into
the Royal Garrison Artillery (No
SR/3127 then 278127).
He signed up for one year but
agreed to stay in if the war lasted
longer than 12 months. He became
company sergeant major in No 3
Depot, RGA, and then brigade sergeant major at the end of January
the following year.
On October 8, 1915, he went to
France with the 17th New Heavy
Battery as part of the British Expeditionary Force. He became an act-
ing regimental sergeant major in
February 1917. When he transferred to the 17th New Heavy Battery in May 1917 he was made a
temporary sergeant major, and saw
out the war until he was demobbed
on February 28, 1919, and joined
the Army Reserve. By then George
Bowhay, who was again mentioned
in despatches, was aged 48. He was
awarded the three Great War campaign medals.
When he returned to South Milton, like everyone else he had to
come to terms with the fact that
several of his compatriots would
not be coming home. One was Harold Brinkworth, who was killed at
Passchendaele in 1917. Harold left
a widow, Harriet Ellen, and two
sons, Harold James Edwin, who
was born in December 1911, and
William Ernest, born in March
1913. They lived at Hillside, above
the barns at Sutton, on Milton
Lane.
In the summer of
1920 Harriet
(left) married
George Bowhay,
and in 1923 their
son William
George, was
born — a halfbrother to Har-
The headstone
at the grave of
George and
Harriet in the
churchyard.
At its foot is a
memorial to
their son
‘Billy’ who
died in the
Second World
War
old and William. Harold died in
1927, aged 15, and George succumbed to cancer two days after
Christmas 1940.
Harriet’s grief was compounded when ‘Billy’ was killed
shortly after D-Day in the Battle for
Hill 112 .
Harriet, who was born in South
Milton, probably in a Feoffee’s cottage in Shute Lane, passed away on
March 26, 1951. Her middle son,
William Ernest (‘Ernie’), who was a
parish councillor and one-time
chairman, died in 1997.
Contact Graham Collyer at
[email protected] if
you wish to comment on South
Milton History Group’s research
into the lives of the men from the
village who fought in the First
World War